Sigmus IV
by Connor Xfor
Summary: It has been months since Humanity and the Covenant ceased hostilities. While searching for replacement colony worlds, the UNSC finds that a separatist group of hostile Covenant has occupied their target planet. Naval Intelligence dispatches a team of Spartans to investigate. They soon discover that Sigmus IV offers more valuable assets that its real estate.
1. Chapter 1: Briefing

Jacob-209 stared impassively at the matte-grey wall in front of him, his face a blank slate, and wondered where in the new, fragmented galaxy the Office of Naval Intelligence was going to send him next. He'd received summons just after a particularly tricky operation on Alpha-Pegasus I, real 'burn after reading' stuff. So here he was, on the ONI prowler _Marie-Antoinette_, orbiting around planet Earth. He and Sabina-211 had arrived less than 20 minutes earlier, marching from within their Pelican dropship out into the small hangar. A young Lieutenant had approached him, they had exchanged salutes, and then he had been taken to this dimly lit cabin, containing only two chairs and a metal table. He had been there for 5 minutes now, silently staring at the same patch of wall and brushing non-existent dust off of his fatigues.

The door opposite him opened with a hiss, and a short Asian woman with piercing green eyes and smooth black hair, wearing the black uniform of the ONI Prowler Fleet, emblazoned with the stripes of a Vice Admiral, walked into the room. She held a small datapad in one hand. Jake immediately stood to attention and saluted smartly, his face set in an emotionless facade.

The Vice Admiral nodded, and gestured for Jake to return to his seat without a word. She lowered herself onto the opposing chair, and looked up into his eyes.

"Chief Petty Officer Jacob-209, welcome to the newest addition to the Fleet." She said, the corners of her mouth twitching slightly. "I've read your service record, and I've got to say I'm impressed, and that's nothing to be taken lightly."

Jake hesitated, "Thank you ma'am"

She coughed slightly, cupping her hand over her mouth. "Where are my manners, I'm Vice Admiral Soo-Lin Yao, ONI Section Three. I've asked your CO, Vice Admiral Osman, if I could borrow you and Spartan-211 for a covert opertion." She tapped her fingers on the table rhythmically.

Jake raised his eyebrow a fraction. "What's the mission ma'am?" He asked, beginning to feel the raw energy and excitement growing.

She slid the datapad across the table. "What do you know about Sigmus IV?"

He took it in one hand, glancing at a series of images and paragraphs describing a small Earth-like planet orbiting a G2 class star. The CAA handbook stated that although the planet had considerable potential as a habitable colony, the system's huge distance from even the Outer Colonies made any habitation difficult. Dense Jungle and plains covered 45% of the planet's surface, with deep blue ocean filling in the gaps.

"Not much ma'am, what is there to interest us?" Jake asked, passing the datapad back

"Until recently, no one has paid much attention to Sigmus IV, but now the Covenant has fallen apart and Lord Hood has signed the ceasefire, we've been looking for somewhere to re-locate refugees from the glassed colonies." She said that last sentence with a hint of twisted bitterness. The three-decade long conflict between humanity and the conglomeration of alien species called The Covenant had seen many human world burn until their surfaces had been vitrified into a shining glass-like substance. "Unfortunately for us, half a Covenant fleet is currently camped on the planet's surface, and our diplomatic mission was sent back to us, minus their heads." She grimaced slightly. "This group is not under the control of Sanghelios, they are a splinter of the old Covenant military, and they are suspiciously fixated with that planet. Of course, we could have _Infinity_ cruise along and pay them a visit, but we're also interested in potential asset preservation." She paused for breath, her eyes lighting up, obviously excited. "And you're going to lead a reconnaissance team to find out what they're after."

Jake took it all in. "Ma'am, the team?"

"You, Petty Officer Sabina-211, and two others" She replied, hesitating. "I should inform you that the two others are graduates of the SPARTAN-III programme." She paused, awaiting his reaction.

Jake blinked a few times, "Understood, ma'am, they've been through Mendez's care, that's good enough for me." He stated, meaning every word.

She nodded "Excellent, Petty Officers Rachel G-023 and Josef G-167 will join you in the hangar. Intel will be sent via a secure link as you jump. Thanks to some highly secret Forerunner technology, the dropship you arrived on is equipped with a pin-point accurate Slip-Space drive. Grab anything else you need from the Quarter Master, I may be able to free up some assets if need be, report once you've established a prescence" She stood up smartly and saluted.

Jake shot to his feet and returned the gesture. He turned to walk out of the small room. He was escorted back to the hangar by the same stony-faced lieutenant as before. As he entered the bay, Sabina stood up from her seat in the corner, walking briskly over to meet him.

"What's the mission?" She asked, straight to the point, her hazel eyes glinting.

"Recon, old Covenant force, Sigmus IV, few weeks" He rattled off, looking around for his other team mates. "Sab, they're putting us together with a couple of SPARTAN-IIIs" He said under his breath, looking her in the eyes.

Her own eyes widened slightly "Okay then, where are they?" She said, scanning the room quickly.

As they conversed, a small side-door on the opposite end of the hangar opened, and two small figures in standard Navy fatigues stepped through. The girl was petite, with jet black hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and emerald green eyes. She had sharp, angular features and the same deadpan stare as the other Spartan III. Josef was slightly taller than Rachel at 5'6", much shorter than their predecessors, he had bright blue eyes, and short fair hair. Both were pale skinned and serious-looking. They strode over, covering the distance to the dropship where the two older Spartans were stood in a few seconds.

They came to a halt and saluted, which was returned by Jake and Sabina instantly.

"Petty Officer Josef-G167 reporting for duty sir" the Spartan said, with the slightest hint of a Germanic accent.

Rachel followed on from her squad mate, with an almost imperceptible Australian twang to her own voice "Petty Officer Rachel-G023, reporting for duty sir."

Jake nodded "At ease, Spartans. I'm Jacob-209, and this is Sabina-211." He looked them up and down, noticing their youth. "Have you been briefed?"

They both nodded curtly, relaxing their postures.

"Alright then, we have to load this cart up with everything we'll need for the mission." He banged the hull of the bulked-up Pelican. "That means weapons, ammo, rations, armour assemblies and transport, as well as communications" He paused, smiling slightly "Scratch the comms, I've got something in mind." He turned to face the three other Spartans. "Fall out, gather what you need and meet back here in 30 minutes, understood?"

"Yes sir!" They chorused, and the two younger soldiers paced off towards the armoury. Sabina hung back, pushing a strand of her fair hair out of her eyes.

"Jay, they're just kids" She mumbled, seemingly shocked "How old are they? 14? 15?"

"So were we once, they've been through the programme, that's all I need to know" He replied, stiff-jawed. "Now, I've got to go have a word with the QM, be back here in 25" He headed off towards the door, leaving her by the dropship. She paused for a moment, thinking, then rushed off to the armoury.

They met back at the dropship in less than 20 minutes, hauling crates and boxes into the crew bay of the Pelican. Luckily for them, the slip-space drive wasn't the only modification. This model of the workhorse aircraft was considerably bulkier than the norm. They stacked the bay high with weapons, ammunition, rations and four MJOLNIR Mobile Armour Assembly Rig. The machines, which looked like industrial clothes washers, would build the powerful MJOLNIR armour systems around a Spartan in minutes. They also convinced the QM to part with two M274 Mongoose ATVs, which they attached to the ship's magnetic grapple. Jake brought over a black crate marked SENTINEL, and placed it in the hold. Satisfied, he turned to his team and grinned a fraction.

"Alright, everything on board?" He asked, checking the mountain of crates which occupied three quarters of the space in the bay.

They all nodded.

Jake nodded back "Okay, Sabina, you get in the cockpit and fire her up, I need to have a word with Rachel and Josef" He said, giving the older Spartan a meaningful look. She understood and quickly moved into the shadows. Jake approached them, taller than both of them by a clear foot. "Look, I'm going to level with you. Most of us Spartan IIs didn't even know that you guys existed until very recently, and a lot of us were sceptical about the deployment of your predecessors." He looked them both in the eye, one after the other, and saw determination and courage in them. "But we're here to do a job, and I'm fairly sure that the brass is going to be scrutinizing us very closely. You've been through the same training as me and Spartan 211, so you're in the club." He cricked his neck. "Just thought I'd get that out of the way with."

Josef was the first to speak "Understood sir, loud and clear"

Rachel just nodded, swallowing.

Jake turned back to the drop ship as the thrusters roared into life, he walked over to the rear door, with the others in tow. He climbed aboard, then offered his hand to each of the younger Spartans, pulling them in. Rachel and Josef strapped themselves in, and Jake walked past them into the cockpit, taking a seat in the co-pilot's chair. The screens before him showed that the SS drive was operating nominally, their payload weight was just under the limit, and that the hull was air-tight. He put on the flight helmet, and answered the hail from the _Marie Antoinette_'s Control Centre.

"This is Vice Admiral Yao, the corridor is clear, exo-solar jump is approved. Operation is online, happy hunting Spartans" She sounded excited, and Jake could hear the busy activity of the Control Centre in the background. Even in supposed peace, the ONI Prowler Fleet never rested.

Sabina answered the hail "Affirmative, slip space drive is fully functional, hull is sealed, preparing for jump." She tapped a few buttons on her console, gripping the control stick in one hand. The engines spooled up, rising in pitch and volume, filling the dropship with noise. The ship smoothly lifted off from the hangar floor, moving slowly towards the massive steel doors. As they smoothly retracted, a shimmering wall of energy took its place. Forerunner shield technology was a hundred times more efficient than the UNSCs leading efforts. The shield maintained the vacuum seal around the door's edge, but allowed physical objects through.

The Pelican manoeuvred through the shield and out into space. The sliding armoured doors slid into place behind them, completing the image of a stealth prowler. The angular surfaces and matte-black colour of the small craft behind them helped to reduce the radar silhouette of the ship to nothing. The triple-thickness Titanium armour plating covering the hull concealed any electromagnetic signals emanating from within. She was a real stealth vessel, absolutely undetectable.

But the sight of the vessel was dwarfed as the dropship rotated, so that the rear viewscreen was facing away from the _Marie-Antoinette_, down towards the birthplace of humanity. The planet hung there, green plains, emerald forests, golden deserts, deep blue oceans, pale tundra. All of it swooped beneath them, the bastion of hope for humanity. Six months had passed since hostilities had ceased, and the galaxy had started to take shape once more, and now they had to leave again.

Sabina accelerated smoothly away from the planet, making it to the jump point in 25 minutes, at which point she killed the engines. She looked over at Jake and nodded, activating the slip-space drive with one flick of a switch. Jake put in the point co-ordinates of the star system, at which time a low humming noise started up near the back of the ship, getting louder and louder, rocking the small craft. Jake unstrapped himself from his seat, pushing himself up in the zero-gravity and pulled himself through the cockpit door into the cramped bay, the two Spartans sat in their seats, looking almost bored.

Sabina's voice came over the intercom as the rumbling became louder, accompanied by a high whining. "Jump in 30 seconds" Jake strapped himself into the harness next to Rachel, expertly securing the complex straps. He noticed that the others now looked slightly nervous.

"How many jumps have you done?" Asked Jake, securing a loose strap on Rachel's harness.

"Two" Replied Josef, smirking slightly, enjoying Jake's shocked face. "We'll manage, sir"

Rachel chimed in, amused "One to get us to boot camp, one to get us to Earth"

Jake sat in silence, revelling in this new information.

His musings were cut short by Sab's voice over the intercom again "Receiving any final messages, jump in 5…4…3…2…1"

As she began her final countdown, the lights in the rear cabin flickered and the whole fuselage shuddered and creaked as the ship punched a hole through the fabric of space. Stars danced in front of Jake's eyes briefly, and he noticed Rachel and Josef shaking their heads, clearing their vision. After 10 seconds of disorientation, the ride smoothed out as they entered slip space, an eerie black limbo. Sab switched on the artificial gravity generator, and Jake felt his boots meet the floor with a heavy thunk. He whipped off his harness, grinning at the young Spartans. "We'll have a more thorough briefing here in a sec, let me just get the Intel the Vice Admiral's sent us."

They nodded, popping the quick release on their harnesses, standing and stretching.

Jake moved into the cockpit once more, standing at the co-pilot's console and scanning the encrypted message that had come through just before they entered slip-space. He glanced over at Sabina, who was busy interacting with the Pelican's navigational AI. "How long until we reach the Sigmus system?"

She looked up "5 hours, the AI's got it all sorted, I'm just slowing it down apparently" She raised her eyebrow slightly.

He stifled a laugh, grabbing a data pad from the console and walking towards the door. "Come on, we've got five hours to kill, might as well come up with a plan while we've got some down time." She checked over the instruments in front of her, then stood and walked into the crew bay behind him. Even with the massive amount of equipment stuffed inside the space, there was still room enough at the back for the four Spartans to sit opposite each other. Jake laid the data pad on the floor, cuing the device to project a 3D holographic image of Sigmus IV in the space between them.

"Sigmus IV, this class-3 planet is about three quarters Earth size, but the iron core is much denser, leading to a surface gravity of about 1.1 times that of Earth's. There are two main continents, both of which are heavily covered by thick rainforest. Atmospheric Oxygen is 22%, so breathable, and temperatures average at about 301 degrees Kelvin. Day length is 20 hours, one orbital period is 500 days." He paused, letting the information appear in green text next to the holographic image. "Three weeks ago, a large covenant force landed on the planet, at these co-ordinates." The hologram zoomed in on an area of land close to the planet's equator, showing orbital imagery of smoothly curved Covenant ships settled on the surface. "Their intentions are unknown, but we have strong reason to believe that this group is a splinter sect of the old Covenant religion, in which all forerunner technology and ruins are religiously significant. This could mean that they have discovered forerunner remnants on the planet, but we can't say for certain. That's why we're here." The image highlighted the occupied area, then zoomed out slightly, putting a red dot over an area of higher ground approximately 10 kilometres east of the Covenant force. "We are to establish a reconnaissance position overlooking the force and observe their activities."

Rachel raised a hand

Jake looked taken aback "This isn't a classroom Spartan, what is it?"

"Sir, what happens if they have found forerunner tech, is this a retrieval or are we just to report back to command?" she asked, frowning slightly

Jake considered for a second "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, for now we're just there to settle in and observe." He glanced over at the mound of weapons and ammunition. "However, if we need to, we'll cause those hinge-heads a whole heap of trouble."

They all settled down for the next few hours. Sabina and Rachel retired to the cockpit. Josef lay across a row of seats and slept. Jake retrieved his SRS99-S5 rifle from the cargo and polished it, paying attention to each individual component.

The slip-space journey passed in a blur, and after a moment of disorientation, they re-joined normal space. All of the Spartans crowded into the cockpit, looking upon their new home for the next few weeks. Jake smiled slyly, feeling the thrill of a mission creeping up on him.

"Petty Officer, take us into geosynchronous orbit, we have prep work to do."


	2. Chapter 2: Preparation

Jacob-209 gazed down upon the planet Sigmus IV, its two continents the deepest emerald, with sparse mountain ranges carving their way through the dense jungle. The small ice caps glinting at the poles, leading into the deep blue oceans, scattered with islands. He looked around the cockpit of the modified Pelican Dropship at the three other Spartans staring over the planet. Sabina-211 glanced at the planet for a few seconds, before turning her attention to the instruments in front of her, manoeuvring the craft into a geo-synchronous orbit around the 4th planet of the distant Sigmus star system. The other two soldiers, Josef-G167 and Rachel-G023, stared for much longer, this being only the third or fourth world they had seen from this height, and the only one untouched by the ravages of war.

He tore his gaze away, slapping the shoulder of his fellow Spartan-II. "Well done Sab, let me know when we've established orbit." He turned to the other two, "Which one of you wants to help me?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

Rachel beat Josef to the punch, jumping forward. "I'll do it sir." She stated, looking eager

"But you don't know what I'm doing yet?" Jake questioned, grinning slightly

She paused for a second, before replying "Irrelevant sir, if it needs doing, I'll do it."

He nodded curtly, signalling her to get into the crew bay. He turned to Josef "Don't worry Spartan, there'll be plenty to do once we get planetside"

The Spartan nodded, before sitting down in the co-pilots chair, assisting Sabina in the complex calculations needed to sustain an orbit. Jake walked into the crew bay, sealing the cockpit door behind him. He approached the boxes marked "SENTINEL", releasing one from its strapping.

Rachel grabbed another, hauling it toward the bay door. "What's the plan sir?" She asked, setting it down gently.

"We have no comms, up to date imagery or warning sytems out here in the outback, so these little beauties..." He tapped the trio of black crates with his boot,"… Will be our SATCOM for the mission. We put them in orbit, and they'll provide satellite comms, be available to get accurate satellite imagery of the surface, and give us warning of enemy ships moving in-system."

She nodded, smiling slightly. "And how do we get them into orbit? She asked, piling the fourth and final crate at the door

He nodded towards the Mobile Armour Assemblies. "We suit up and push them out the back. We'll have to momentarily speed up the ship while we push them out, otherwise they won't be in a stable orbit, but we've got Sabina and Josef working in the cockpit for that." He grabbed the snaking power cables from the back of the units and plugged them in to the line of sockets recessed into the ceiling of the bay.

Rachel nodded, moving over to the controls on her unit, tapping in her serial number, before stepping into the machine, allowing the armatures to build the suit of MJOLNIR power-assisted body armour around her, plate by plate, piece by piece. Jake typed in his own number and stepped inside, and the machine came to life. It whirred an buzzed, the small arms delivering plates of armour and fusion cells to his body, other arms screwing the pieces together, tightening recessed fasteners. The assembly smoothly and methodically encased him in ceramic-metal composite, building the half-tonne armour system in a little over 20 minutes. As the machine lowered the helmet, Jake reached up to grab it, stepping out from the oversized washing machine, holding his helmet under his arm.

Rachel stepped out from her own machine, clad in her own armour, her footsteps heavy on the metal. She stood a foot shorter than the older Spartan, and clipped her own helmet onto her belt. She was wearing a modified version of the Scout armour system, the helmet pointed and angular, almost razor sharp. She had customised the colour scheme, base paint deep emerald green, with orange highlights emblazoned on the combat skin and over her visor. He himself wore a standard Mark VI MJOLNIR suit, olive green painted, with a pale gold visor.

She looked his armour up and down, eyebrows raised "Mark VI? Very different from the Mark V" She whispered, nodding approvingly.

He gave a thumbs up "Definitely, more expensive that a frigate, shield charge time is almost nil, same as your GEN2 Scout." He donned his helmet, sealing the suit from the outside world, completing the image of the fearless god of war that the UNSC had portrayed all Spartans to be.

Rachel nodded, unclipping her own helmet and sliding it easily on to her head, the neck seal hissing. She now looked like an armoured shark, lethal, razor-edged and menacing. She depolarised her visor, visibly happy to be inside the armour.

Jake marched over to the cockpit door, buzzing the intercom. "Sab, depressurise and kill the grav generator, we're suited up in here." There was a pause, then Sabina's clear Eastern European tones came through the helmet speakers.

"Roger that, decompressing crew bay now" She spoke, and the vents in the walls hissed as the air was released into the vacuum of space. At the same time, the pair lifted off from the floor, the boxes and crates kept down by their harnesses. Rachel gave him a quick thumbs up, and a small air meter popped up in the HUD, indicating that the two Spartans had an hour before the air supply in their suits ran out. Plenty of time.

Rachel punched the door control and they opened silently, revealing a view of the blackness of space. "Magnetising" Rachel said as her boots slammed to the floor of the bay. Jake did the same, and he clunked to the floor. He walked slowly towards the crates, opening the first one with his combat knife. He gripped the smooth black box in one hand, pressing a smooth button on its surface, and a red blinking light started flashing. He handed the satellite to Rachel slowly, keeping to zero-gravity procedures. The device was then gently propelled out of the open door, drifting away in perfect geosynchronous orbit.

They performed this operation three more times at different intervals around the planet, the dropship manoeuvring 90 degrees around the axis before taking up a stable orbit and deploying the next satellite. When the last one was in position, Josef checked that the signal from each probe was strong.

"They are beginning to do a detailed map of the planet's surface, real time imagery online." He confirmed.

Jake nodded at Rachel as the crew bay re-pressurised and gravity was restored. "Good work, now let's let the others suit up while we take her in"

Sabina and Josef filed out of the cockpit, Jake and Rachel took their places, and began slowly guiding the Pelican into the planet's atmosphere. As they approached the point of no return, the other two strode into the small cockpit. Sabina stood as tall as Jake, in standard Mark VI armour apart from the shoulder pads, which had been replaced by ODST style pads. Her armour was matte-grey with a forest green visor. Josef had opted for a set of EVA armour, the smooth panoramic visor a silver-blue colour, with sapphire-blue paint covering the surfaces.

"Buckle your seat belts, we're burning atmosphere in 5" Rachel said, strapping the co-pilot's harness tightly around her belt. As they entered Sigmus VI's upper atmosphere, the view before them became tinted orange, then yellow as the incredible frictional forces cooked the tiny craft. External temperature quickly rose to incredible heights. The ship began to shake and shudder violently, even more so than when entering slip space. But she held. After 45 seconds of bone-shaking vibrations, the view outside cleared, minus a few scorch marks on the plexi-glass. The ride stabilised, and the whine of the engines overpowered the whoosh of re-entry.

They soared through the high-altitude cloud formations, dropping quickly as they approached their LZ. They crested a long mountain range and swooped down the other side of the peaks, sticking close to the jagged landscape, heading towards the thick jungle ahead. According to the satellite imagery being transmitted to the ship, they were rapidly approaching the Covenant fleet, but none of the Spartans had spotted it yet.

Suddenly, after travelling at tree top height for 50 miles, they suddenly found themselves high in the air as the ground fell rapidly away from beneath them as they entered into an enormous crater, the forest falling 100 metres or so before continuing, leaving a sheer cliff edge behind them. At the northern end of the crater, the natural topography fell to the level of the crater, forming a horse-shoe shape 20 kilometres wide. As Jake dropped altitude, they all looked through the viewscreen, sharing a collective gasp.

Over a dozen alien ships hugged the ground about 10 kilometres in front of them, their distinctive organic, curved shapes poking above the canopy. Jake counted quickly, correlating with orbital imagery, and counted one battlecruiser, three cruisers, four destroyers, half a dozen frigates and a few corvettes, all arranged in a grid formation, just above the surface.

"By the stars, this must be the biggest concentration of covenant hardware in the galaxy" Whispered Josef, slight bitterness creeping into his voice

Jake pulled the dropship hard left and whizzed back along their flight path, keeping low. "Don't want to get blasted out of the sky, now, do we?" He muttered, looping around the circumference of the crater towards the open end of the horseshoe, slowly coming to a halt on a raised section of the jungle overlooking the valley. Jake set the Pelican down in a small clearing in the forest canopy, extending the landing gear and shutting down the engines, he turned to the other Spartans, smiling through his depolarised visor. "Welcome to Sigmus IV"

As the dust and leaf litter settled around the craft, the Spartans filed out of the back of it, stepping out onto the forest floor. Josef quickly threw a camouflage net over the ship, masking its distinctive outline. They gathered just outside the ship's doors, under the hanging M274 Mongooses.

"Rachel, set up motion detectors at 50, 100 and 150 metres radius." Jake said, as she nodded and rushed inside the ship and grabbed the small devices, hurrying off into the forest. "Sabina, scout for water, rivers, streams, whatever, we need it as fuel for the ATVs". She nodded and ran off towards the North, away from the crater, using satellite navigation to guide her to the nearest water source.

He turned to Josef "Let's get this gear out of here" The younger Spartan nodded, and they hauled all of their equipment out of the back of the dropship, which was infinitely easier in their power-assisted armour, and laid them out on the ground underneath a tall, pine-like tree. Stacks upon stacks of weapon crates, ammunition, food supplies and other equipment stood in neat arrangements. Jake slung a nano-fibre sheet over the tree branch, tying it to a hardpoint on the dropship's tail to provide a shady area between the ship's rear and the ring of trees surrounding it. They finished the camp by setting up the sleeping area in the Pelican's bay.

Satisfied, Jake and Josef began retrieving the weapons from their crates and carefully assembling them, resting them against the crates they used as chairs. As they worked, Jake spotted the familiar practiced efficiency in Josef's work that meant that CPO Mendez had taught him at some point. Following on this thought, he posed a question. "So, Petty Officer, how's Dr Halsey? I haven't seen her in years."

Josef stopped his work, tilting his head slightly "Halsey? I don't know who you mean, who is Halsey?"

Jake frowned inside his helmet "Dr Halsey, creator of the Spartan II programme?"

Josef shook his head slightly "Sorry sir, never met her in my life." He went back to cleaning the BR-55 in his hands.

Jake puzzled over this. The next generation of Spartans had never met Dr Halsey? He had, along with all the Spartan IIs, assumed that they were only the first of many generations of super-soldiers. And when younger sets of MJOLNIR armour started popping up across the UNSC, they'd all thought that this was the natural continuation. But according to Josef, this new generation had been produced without her. This felt wrong somehow. ONI kept their secrets well, it would seem.

His musings were interrupted by the return of Rachel, who had finished installing SOLARIS motion sensors all around the camp. She nodded at Josef, then addressed the Chief Petty Officer "Sir, I sighted banshee fliers, fast and low, scouting the edge of the crater, flight of two. They didn't spot me, but they may be aware that something's in the area."

Jake nodded slowly, putting his musings about Halsey to the back of his mind "Agreed, and we need to be one step ahead of them. I think we need to tap into their BattleNet, but we'll need a covvie comms system. That either means either stealing one, or ambushing a patrol and ripping one out of their cold dead hands." He paused "I'm all in favour for the latter, but if we do they'll tighten security."

Josef leaned forward, depolarising his visor to reveal a tight smile. "What if we take them out without firing a shot, or if we have to, we use their weapons? No proof of UNSC involvement. Of course they'll come looking for the patrol, but the terrain is tough, and if/when they do find the bodies there'll be no projectile wounds on them"

Rachel piped in "In addition, if we use some plasma weapons on them, it'll look like a fragging or something, just a tragic incident that'll have the covenant watching their backs for each other, not us." She sat down on a boulder, leaning her helmeted head on one hand, tapping her fingers on her thigh.

Jake nodded, slowly forming a plan. "I'm liking all this, but we need more accurate recon of the terrain and enemy patrol patterns" In truth, all this had occurred to him 10 minutes ago, but he wanted to see what these Spartan-IIIs could come up with. So far, they'd done well, analysing the problem and working out half a solution within minutes. "When Sabina gets back we'll plan it out more thoroughly" He said, checking his chronograph, 90 minutes till sundown. He stood up from the lip of the Pelican's bay and walked over to the rations, fishing three boxes out of a crate, sealing the lid after. "So then, who wants the Spaghetti Farbonizarre? Or what passes for it."

Jake felt a little tension ease away instantly. Griping about the state of the Navy's food bonded all soldiers together, united them in complaint. Rachel snorted, waving the packet of dried pasta away "I'll pass sir, I had one on the trip here, almost killed me" Her face twitched in a smile, as Jake offered the packet to Josef, who stared at it like it was unexploded ordinance.

"Ummm, yeah, no thanks sir, I'd rather march into the centre of that covenant fleet wearing a high visibility jacket" He waved the package away, shivering slightly.

Jake tossed them the other two meals, shaking his head slowly "You youngsters don't know how good you've got it, Sab and I had to survive off of those high calorie bars for three weeks on one op. Those were bad times."

That generated winces from the others. No one deserved a fate like that. The bars had enough pure energy to last two days conservatively, but they tasted like a horse's arse. As he sat back down on the Pelican's ramp, Sabina jogged back into the clearing, nodding welcome to the Spartan-IIIs, before grabbing herself some rations and sitting down further along the ledge, leaning against the inner wall of the bay.

"There's a couple of rivers a click down the hill, it opens up down there, more meadows than forest. And there's wildlife, huge bovine quadrupeds, and carrion avians as well, not many fish though, so its meals from packets for now" She took off her helmet and laid it on the floor next to her, quickly eating the high-energy food. The others did the same, twisting on their seats to face the back of the ship. Jake pushed his meal to the side, popping his lid off and clipping it to his belt.

"Right then, now we're fed and watered, we need to get a hold of a Covenant communicator, so that we can piggyback their comms and listen in." He looked round quickly "Now, one avenue of achieving that is to take out a patrol and steal theirs, but we need to do it without revealing that UNSC forces are on the planet. Of course, they may have been able to track our dropship since we arrived, but I think we were missed, after all, we've not been shot out of the sky or ambushed yet."

He consulted his data pad, the SATCOM imagery that the SENTINEL system had been capturing over the last few hours showed the terrain down to a metre resolution. Activating the projector, Jake displayed the horseshoe crater, complete with covenant fleet hanging overhead, into the air just outside the door. "Right, we'll have to complete the recon ourselves, individual patrol movements are a little hard to spot from orbit, but we've got a good map of the terrain already, so that should make things easier. We'll take all of tomorrow to recon, until we're absolutely sure of the patterns, then we'll set an ambush in motion tomorrow night. Any questions?"

Josef sat up slightly. "Sir, if it's okay with you, Rachel and I can do some preliminary recon tonight, we can handle covert" He looked up beseechingly. "We'll just do some estimates on troop count, deployment, shadow a patrol, no combat, 'From shadows we watch'" He said, quoting the ONI prowler fleet's unwritten motto.

Rachel nodded enthusiastically. "I'm up for it sir" She punched her fellow Spartan in the arm "Besides, someone's got to take care of him"

Jake thought about it, glancing discretely towards Sabina. She nodded almost imperceptibly, and he followed suit. He highlighted an area of the map, a small concentric circle that surrounded the settled covenant battlegroup. "Stay out of this area, don't take any chances, radio check every 30 minutes, surface recon only, back at 0200, understood?" He stood in front of them.

The two Spartans nodded, Josef hesitating beforehand, jamming their helmets down on top of their heads, saluting reflexively. "Yes sir" They chorused, before grabbing basic reconnaissance equipment and hurtling out of the clearing down the slope, into the jungle. Jake was impressed, even with their weaker bones and lower muscle density, the smaller figures still managed to reach the same speeds as a Spartan-II.

He turned to Sabina, smiling "They grow up so fast" He smirked, stepping into the crew bay towards the beds at the far end.

Sabina cracked a smile, watching their progress on the holo-map. Jake shifted the projection into the bay, sitting down on one of the seats along one wall. They all appeared as Green dots on the image, two staying still on top of the ridge line, two rapidly descending the hill, heading towards the mess of red dots that the SENTINEL system had identified as hostile. Sabina shifted towards the front of the bay, polishing her sidearm absent-mindedly.

"What do you think of the next generation so far?" Jake asked, staring into the projection

She took her time answering the question, deftly removing the sidearm's receiver. "I think they're eager. Maybe too eager. They've had little to no real combat experience." She shrugged "But they're alright, don't forget, they're still Spartans"

"But not Halsey's" Jake noted "Josef had never heard of her, don't you think that's odd?"

She hesitated, gripping the polishing rag tightly "She'd never knowingly abandon the Spartan Project. You know that. So the question is, why isn't she on board with III?"

Jake shook his head slightly "I don't know, but the internal politics of ONI is nothing if not turbulent. Maybe she doesn't even know about it..."

She paused again "There's something else. Josef and I got talking when you and Rachel were deploying SENTINEL. We were identifying the specific ships in the group, and one of them, the destroyer _Faithful Deity _has been logged as taking part in the glassing of New Hamburg…"

Jake sighed, recalling information from Josef's file, finishing her sentence "… which is the birthplace of Josef-G167, who, as a 6 year old child, watched his home planet fall"

Sabina nodded "You should have seen his reaction, he gripped the table so hard it left dents, and he wasn't even in armour at the time…"

They were interrupted by a radio hail emanating from the ship's internal speakers "Gamma-One-Six-Seven calling in, approaching hostile AO, over"

Sabina shot Jake a glance, and pressed the call button "Roger G167, Sierra-Two-One-One copy, over and out"

She released the button "Another odd thing about our new colleagues, have you seen the meds they're on? Cyclo-trixine, dipentathylamine, lorazomol? Those are all anti-psychotics and psych mediators. Both of them, once a day. Something's not right." She folded her arms, frowning slightly.

Jake shifted uneasily "Well, we weren't perfect either, they'll do fine. If we do this right, we could form our own Unit. We could do with their skillset." He settled down in his seat for a restless night, troubled. "If the Spartan-IIIs are meant to be our replacement, our days are numbered, there are over three hundred of them right now, and there are less than a dozen functioning Spartan-IIs." He shrugged

She tapped on the thigh of her armour, eyes dark and brooding. "You have been called upon to serve" She recited, the first words Dr Halsey had told them coming easily into her mind.

"You will be the defender of Earth and all her Colonies" Jake muttered, remembering all the worlds he had seen smoking and burned. "We did it, Sab. Earth is safe"

"For now." She responded, pointing at the covenant ships displayed on the projection. "Unless these guys get their hands on some forerunner tech, that is."

He nodded. "Whatever happens to us, to the other IIs, we stay together." He made the age-old Spartan greeting, the tracing of two lines over his mouth with the two first fingers on his right hand.

She returned the gesture silently, jaw set. It would take a lot more than 300 Spartans to destroy their legacy.


	3. Chapter 3: Ambush

Rachel-G023 landed on the muddy ground with a heavy thud, her power-assisted armour propelling her towards the rocky outcrop on top of the steep hill that she and Josef-G167 had been slowly ascending for the last few minutes. She crouched behind the large boulder, buzzing Josef on the TEAMCOM. He quickly darted from behind his cover and joined her.

They had both spotted the Covenant patrol making their way through a deep ravine in the landscape, and had shadowed their movements for kilometres. The small group of aliens made their way painstakingly slowly through the terrain, and following them stealthily was no easy feat. She glanced at her chronometer: 01:30. They'd been following this group for an hour, and had their route pretty well mapped out.

She dared a quick look over the ridgeline, and spotted the patrol easily. The bright coloured armour was no camouflage aid, and Rachel quickly tallied their numbers; two tall, loping Sanghelli at the front, leading a group of a dozen diminutive Uungoy chittering amongst themselves. Plasma rifles, pistols, energy swords. Nothing they and the others couldn't handle.

Josef peeked over himself, gripping his BR-85 rifle tightly. "I hate this recon work, every fibre in my being tells me to pop these genocidal freaks and damn the consequences" He set his rifle down on the rock, sighting the lead Elite quickly, his finger not quite on the trigger.

Rachel tapped his shoulder, worried "Come on Josef, don't do anything stupid, we've done our job, let's get out of here"

He didn't relax, breathing heavily. "What are the chances that one of them down there killed your family? They all participated in the slaughter of billions, they massacred indiscriminately." He depolarised his visor and turned to look at her, his eyes wild and angry.

She sighed "I don't know, but right now we need to remain calm. Now isn't the time to strike. That comes later. Why do you think we're here? We supply the intel, then the Navy blasts them out of the sky. It's all about logistics, we don't have many hulls left, so we pick each battle carefully." She calmly reasoned with him, and he withdrew his weapon from the ridge, shoulders relaxing slightly.

"Thanks Rachel" He muttered as he turned away from the edge and started backing slowly down the slope, his visor becoming opaque once more. She took a few last snapshots with her helmet camera, highlighting the patrol's overall formation, before a beep on her TEAMCOM caught her attention.

Josef waved her over, his domed EVA helmet reflecting her silhouette back at her. She moved towards him, her armour actuators smoothly assisting her motion. Josef tapped his wrist, an archaic gesture in itself, wristwatches had been antiquated for years. She nodded silently, before they both slunk away from the cliff, down a slope towards a thin woodland. Once safely away from the patrol, Rachel buzzed him on the radio. "So, what do you think? With the CPO and PO I think we could pull it off."

Josef marched along between the tall tree trunks, sliding his BR-55 onto the magnetic holder on his back. "Sure thing, we may need some natural assistance, but it's feasible" he said, his earlier lapse in judgement seemingly a thing of the past. They broke into a steady jog. "What do you think about them?"

"Who, the CPO and PO? I think they've seen more combat than half the UNSC" She replied, ducking and weaving between the trees.

"Don't you get the feeling that this is just some huge test? That they're judging whether or not we can match up to them?"

She thought for a moment "I think they're being tested as much as we are. I mean, nearly all of the IIs are KIA, that's got to hurt, and you heard some of the DIs back on Onyx, they're all supposed to be crazy."

He grunted assent. "True, but Lieutenant Ambrose called the IIs the finest fighting force ever established." He shook his head "But we shouldn't be thinking of 'them' and 'us', we're all in the same boat, protecting Earth. Although he did offer us those ration packs, so he can't be too fond of us"

She laughed "He ate it afterwards, so we can deduce that Spartan-IIs have stomachs of steel"

He chuckled, running through a small stream, splashing through the murky water. As she did the same, a proximity alert flashed over her HUD, satellite monitoring had detected a flight of Phantoms heading in their direction. Immediately, without thought she threw herself under a fallen tree, sliding her BR-55 from her back, charging the handle. She felt the cool stream rushing over her body, and felt the scraping of the tree bark against her shoulder as she lay face-down in the shallow water. Josef ducked under the cover of an overhanging tree, cocking his own weapon, crouching ankle-deep in the stream, shoulder pressed into the steep earthen banks on which the tree was rooted.

The high pitched whines of multiple impulse drives approached. The two Spartans were absolutely still, observing radio silence. The chances that any ship had spotted them were tiny, but they didn't intend on giving the Covenant any help in finding them. The whining and whisper-like noises coming from the two insect-like dropships getting louder, and suddenly they swooped overhead, briefly illuminating the stream with pale blue light. Rachel could see a golden-armoured Elite sitting on the edge of the platform where a plasma cannon normally rested.

The dropships hovered around the vicinity for 5 long minutes, circling like vultures, before peeling away and heading back towards the centre of the covenant fleet

She and Josef stayed absolutely still for another ten minutes, before slowly extracting themselves from their hiding places and moving swiftly off into the forest, snaking their way back towards the Pelican, trying to throw off any potential pursuers. As they approached the foot of the hill, on top of which the ship was secreted, another proximity alarm started in both their helmets as a trio of low-flying Banshee fighters swooped overhead on their regular patrol pattern, scarring the sky with pink/purple trails in their wake. They threw themselves towards the nearest trees for 30 seconds, before resuming their ascent, alerting Spartan-211 of their approach over the radio. As they entered their makeshift camp, the Chief Petty Officer waved them inside the dropship's crew bay, face set. As they entered, the door slid smoothly shut, sealing the ship entirely, and Rachel noticed that none of the inner lights were on.

They saluted quickly, and Jacob nodded, before sitting down, gesturing for them to do the same. "So, Petty Officers, result?" He asked, his voice calm and neutral

Sabina's voice came from the cockpit "Those Banshees have RTB'd, restoring OPSNormal" The cabin lights flickered on.

Rachel reached up and unsealed her helmet, setting it down next to her as she sat opposite him. "We tracked a covenant patrol for approximately one hour, they seem to have a certain affinity for patrolling the ravines and trenches in the crater, the one we followed was moderately well armed, two Elites, twelve Grunts, the usual."

Josef, helmet-less as well, spoke "A couple of phantoms paid us a visit, must have triggered a ground-based motion detector. We hunkered down and they passed us by."

The CPO thought for a few moments, before calling out to the other Spartan-II "Hey, Sab? Do the covenant have the whole crater rigged for motion?"

After a short pause, her reply rang out "Negative, just around their ships and bases, key points of interest."

Jake pondered this for a second "We'd only set up motion detectors around places of importance, so why did they detect you two that far away from their bases?" He rested his chin on his hands, frowning. "I'll think about that for a while, you two should get some rest." He motioned to the carbon-fibre bunks set up against the back wall.

Rachel nodded, suddenly exhausted, the stress of nearly blowing the whole operation had drained her of energy, and, looking over at her comrade, it looked like it had had a similar effect on him.

Jacob stood and patted each of them on the shoulder "Good work Spartans, you carried out your mission, avoided enemy capture, and I'm sure there's something up with those motion detectors." He walked towards the cockpit. "Get some sleep, we'll wake you in a few hours."

Rachel saluted once more, then stumbled over to a bunk, which groaned under the weight of her and her armour. She drifted off to sleep without another word, and was out in under 20 minutes.

Jake slid into the seat next to Sabina, sighing. "Well, they did well, all things considered."

Sabina looked up from the tactical display. "So I take it from that that we're not going to tell them how close they came to being glassed? The Phantoms requested the destroyer _Sanctified Martyr_ to bombard the whole area just in case, over an unencrypted channel no less."

Jake shuddered "No, I'll tell them, but not right now, they're coming down off of the adrenaline, let them sleep for now. I want to know why they rigged that area up, and why the destroyer didn't fire when requested to, anything on the thermal scan?"

Sabina taped a few instructions into the computer, and the tactical map displayed took on a series of coloured bands. The suspect area showed no abnormalities in this spectrum. "Nothing on IR, let's try UV" she muttered, layering the map with another filter, showing nothing out of the ordinary. "Nothing on that either, no abnormal EM radiation at all." She stared intensely at the map, as if willing the completely normal patch of ground to spontaneously reveal its secrets.

Suddenly, an idea came into his mind. He activated his HUD's file system, and trawled quickly though the on-board database for records on Forerunner ruins. He found a series of files, written by one , detailing the discovery of mysterious Fore-runner structures beneath the surface of Reach, shortly before its fall. In her own words; "…These enigmatic structures were only discovered as a result of an Iron Mining Corporation, which stumbled upon them after detecting large magnetic fluctuations. When Section Three closed down the operation, our own analysts confirmed that the strange material's magnetic flux oscillated with a frequency identical to that of Reach's own magnetic field. Upon further investigation, we discovered that in some areas, the strong, highly localised magnetic field was detectable on the surface…"

"Sab, have a read of this" Jake whispered, sending the file to the cockpit's display. Moments later, her gauntleted hands were already flying across the keyboard, layering over a display of magnetic field strength over the map. There, 200 metres from where a Covenant motion sensor detected Rachel and Josef, a bright red dot marked an area of incredibly high magnetic flux density. He slapped her shoulder, grinning. "Got it. I'd bet my armour that there's a Forerunner construct right under there." He paused, frowning as a thought occurred to him

Apparently the same thought had occurred to Sabina, because she widened the magnetic field filter to the whole crater. "So why isn't this area being excavated right now, why just one motion sensor?" She muttered. A second later they had their answer, as dozens upon dozens of red lights winked into existence, scattered amongst the round area, with no discernable pattern to their placement.

Jake whistled lowly. "I'll be damned." The blinking display informed him that over one hundred and fifty six points of interest were present in the round base of the crater. "And these are only the ones detectable on the surface." He chewed this information over. "That explains why the _Sanctified Martyr_ didn't fire on them either, no sane Shipmaster would destroy holy relics like that."

"Should I inform the Admiral that we've confirmed Forerunner constructs?" She began compiling a short message, including a highlighted copy of Dr Halsey's notes from Reach as well as a copy of the magnetic readings they had recorded.

Jake nodded "Send it now, and we should get a reply in the morning" He wasn't sure what the Admiral's response would be. They had effectively completed their mission, they had discovered strong evidence of Forerunner structures under the covenant fleet. However, the deduction had been too easy, and there was no need for Spartans to be deployed on a simple intelligence gathering mission. He had a sneaking suspicion that reconnaissance was only part one of their mission.

As the message sent, Sabina stood up, cricking her neck loudly

"I'll be first watch, you get some sleep, rotate in 5 hours" Jake said, taking her place in the pilot's seat. She nodded and exited the cockpit, Jake heard her slump down onto a bunk before he slid the door shut, turning to the screens in front of him. Dozens of small contacts moved around the alien ships, Phantoms, the older, tuning-fork shaped Spirit dropships, Banshees. The Covenant menace never slept. He scrolled through the data streaming in from the SENTINEL system; nothing unexpected, no slip-space activity, no unusual movements on the surface. His attention wandered to the stack of information received just before their jump, FLEETCOM memos that he hadn't had time to read up until now.

There was civil unrest on Sanghelios, Insurrectionists had blown up a UNSC ammunition stockpile on the colony of Firenze. Now the main bulk of the Covenant had fallen, people tended to remember their old grudges. He settled down, poring through the information for several hours, keeping one eye on the tactical map, briefly distracted by the beautiful sunrise peeking through the trees, one of Sigmus IV's moons rising in the opposite end of the sky.

Five minutes before he was due to awaken the others, the cockpit door slid smoothly open and Josef entered, looking through the front viewscreen out towards the alien battlegroup, the early morning sunlight illuminating the hulls harshly, throwing long shadows over the forest.

"What's the plan for today sir?" He asked, still facing forwards.

Jake brought up the tactical map on the screen in front of them. "Well, we're hoping to ambush a patrol early afternoon, which means we all have to plan the operation out, pick a suitable location etc. Then we're stuck on long-distance recon for the rest of the day, they'll be on high alert after their patrol goes missing"

He nodded, before tearing his eyes away from the screen and entering the bay. Jake closed the systems in the cockpit down before following. Sabina and Rachel were already standing at ease by the raised ramp, helmets tucked under arms. As the male Spartans joined them, Jake outlined the day's objectives.

"We're making final preparations this morning, pending a response from Vice Admiral Yao, so Josef and Rachel will take point as we make our way to the ravine, let's move" He said, flicking a switch to lower the ramp. They all filed out of the Pelican and collected weapons, Jake opted for a custom-made MA5D with suppressor, and an M45D shotgun, Josef and Sabina went for standard-issue BR-85HB rifles and M6D sidearms, and Sabina collected her prized SRS99-S5 Sniper rifle and an M7S silenced sub machine gun. Hopefully the weapons would be superfluous to their needs for today, but if trouble came their way, they'd be prepared.

Weapons and ammunition collected, Jake closed the dropship up and holsered his shotgun on his back, turning to face the others. He nodded curtly, before unclipping his helmet from his belt and donning it, running a full system's check. The others followed suit, and soon Jake saw green status symbols lighting up in his HUD, and the IFF tag system came online, outlining each of the Spartans with a green aura, as well as painting their motion sensor contacts green as well.

Satisfied, he sent a burst transmission, which was followed by three winking acknowledgement lights on his HUD. As one, the Spartans formed up in the edge of the clearing, and the two smaller figures lead them down the steep slope of the hill, towards the ravine. Theoretically they could chat over the TEAMCOM channel with no ill effects, but there was an edge of seriousness in the air, everyone was utterly focussed on their objective. Perfect.

They travelled for an hour, moving swiftly through dense woodland, over thin streams and through grassy meadows, signalling to each other by hand movements only. They soon reached a long clearing in the thin forest they were walking through, and the ground sharply ascended, rising to about thirty metres above them, Josef signalled once, and then began to slowly climb up the steep banks, which were dotted with visible boulders and a few hardy trees. As they climbed, Jacob checked the SENTINEL data on his HUD, no large movements of vehicles or forces within their area. Nothing on his motion sensor either.

He crested the hill, and looked down into the ravine. A sheer cliff fell down before him, going down 50 metres below their current position, 20 metres below ground level. The jagged gash in the landscape ran as far as he could see, curving slightly in towards the centre of the crater. He knew if he checked the satellite imagery that this would only be one of a network of ravines and ditches that criss-crossed the land. At the very bottom of the rocky valley, a well-worn path snaked its way along the floor where countless patrols had previously tread.

He pointed down the gap, before running back down the hill to the tree line and securing a climbing rope to a tall oak-like specimen. He tested its strength before re-joining the others, spooling out the composite cable behind him. When he reached the ridge line, he affixed a pulley system to a carbon-fibre ground anchor, before driving the structure into the earth a few metres away from the cliff edge. He clipped the cable to a hard point on his waist, backing slowly towards the edge. He saw the others preparing to attach themselves to the cable, stowing their weapons on their backs. He flashed an acknowledgement light, before leaning backwards, letting the rope take the weight of his armour. It held.

As he made his descent down the rocky cliff, he paused, flashing a warning light to his comrades above. He had spotted contacts on his motion sensor. As he steadied himself against the wall, a covenant patrol rounded the corner 30 metres below him, moving slowly along the path. Grunts trailed behind the two lead Elites, punching each other and talking in their high-pitched barks. The two leaders conversed in low tones, intensely debating something. Jake knew that if they looked up, his olive-green armour would stand out like a sore thumb against the pale chalk-like wall. He waited what seemed like an eternity before the patrol moved out of sight, and he rappelled rapidly to the ground, flashing a green light.

As the last Spartan hit the floor, Jake had already formed a semi-plan in his mind. The floor of the gulley was littered with rocks and boulders, and the walls widened about four metres above the floor, until at the base of the crevice, the walls were five metres apart, with jagged boulders and rocky debris littering the path on either side.

They all knew that another patrol would not be far behind, so they got to work. Josef and Rachel, under instruction, rolled two massive boulders from the side of the path directly onto it, effectively blocking it. The massive monoliths weighed close to two tons each, and Jake heard the actuators and servos in the pair's suits whine abrasively. After he had secured the rappelling cable to the wall and covered it with dust, he and Sabina got to work camouflaging themselves, grabbing handfuls of chalky dust from the floor and applying it to each other's armour, dulling the colours to a drab grey. Josef and Rachel did the same, until all four Spartans looked like pale impressions of warriors, ghostly figures of armoured demons. Perfect.

It was a fair bet that the next patrol would approach the site from the same direction as the previous one. As such, Jacob and Josef situated themselves about 10 metres away from the blockage so that when the patrol stopped, they would be directly behind them. They lay prone on either side of the path, seeking as much cover as possible behind rocks, and letting their pale grey coating of dust blend in with the limestone rubble around them. Sabina and Rachel positioned themselves in a similar manner, but just in front of the barrier, so that they could quickly neutralise the Elite leaders of the next patrol before they got a chance to call for help.

Everything was ready, the trap was sprung. Admittedly, it wasn't a terribly complicated plan, and there were a long list of things that could go wrong, but Jake had calmly reinforced the basic plan on them all; take out the Sanghelli first, worry about the Uungoy afterwards. They could improvise around that basic objective if necessary. They waited in these positions for the next patrol. Jake took advantage of this by checking if any messages had come through from the Admiral. Nothing had, so Jake turned his mind away from the issue, checking the squad's Bio readings. Everyone was as expected, slight increase in adrenal output, nothing out of the ordinary. God he hated the waiting.

20 long minutes passed, before Josef flashed the rest of the squad a warning light. A second later, Jake too picked up the motion sensor contacts heading their way, and flashed a confirmation light. A few seconds later, another patrol rounded the corner. A pair of Sanghelli and a dozen Unggoy, just as two elites at the front growled in frustration at the sight of the blockage, gesticulating before barking orders at the Grunts, their four-way jaws opening and closing rapidly. The whole patrol headed towards the boulders, past Jacob and Josef, who stayed absolutely still as they went. One of the Unggoy knocked a stone loose from the path, and it tumbled down the slight gradient towards the waiting Spartan. Jake breathed slowly, letting the group pass, until the entire collection of aliens was trapped unknowingly between the four Spartans. They wouldn't know what hit them. As the grunts moved forward to try and clear the path, Jake sent an action signal, and immediately received three green lights on his HUD.

As one, the four warriors moved into action. Rachel and Sabina rose, spectre-like from their hiding places, charging at the tall elites, tackling them both to the ground. Rachel delivered an actuator-assisted uppercut to her target, snapping the tall alien's head back, dazing it. Sabina simply powered her own fist into her Elite's neck, crushing the windpipe. The powerful creature struggled wildly, scrambling with one three-fingered hand at its belt, reaching for its plasma rifle. While the two women wrestled with Sanghelli, Jacob and Josef sprinted towards the panicked Grunts, who stood there, awestruck at the sight of their leaders' struggle. Jacob quickly snapped the neck of the nearest grunt, relieving the short alien of his side arm. Josef dispatched his first target in a timely fashion, raising his captured plasma pistol at the rest of the group. Jake checked the power level on his own pistol, before firing rapidly at the bunched-up grunts, the superheated plasma cutting through their environment suits like a hot knife through butter. Grunts squealed loudly and ran for cover, falling to the floor under the dual onslaught. One Grunt pulled his weapon and fired wildly, the bolt of energy flowing over Josef's shields, causing them to flare and shimmer. Jake quickly put him down with a bolt to the head, melting through the creature's skull and igniting the methane tank on its back. The resulting explosion eviscerated the three grunts nearby, and the two male Spartans calmly finished off the last two with practiced ease. He then turned his attention to the struggling Elites. Sabina had hers under control, and was slowly asphyxiating it with her elbow, its limbs flailed, desperately trying to prize her away. Rachel was having a little more difficulty, as her captive had come round from its dazed state, and was delivering crushing blows to the side of her head with its free arm, growling and snarling like a wild animal. She jabbed at the nerve cluster on the side of its neck, sending it into spasm, and Jacob calmly strolled over. On his way, he held down the trigger on his plasma pistol, the muzzle beginning to glow bright green, heating the air around it. He crouched next to the pair, ripped the blue helmet off of the Elite, held the muzzle of the pistol against the side of its head, and fired. The now headless alien fell still, and Rachel stood up, a little dazed, staring down at the space where the proud Elite's head had once been.

Jake looked around at the carnage, a dozen dead grunts, one headless elite and one choked to death. Sabina rose from her dead Sanghelli, holding his helmet in one hand, his plasma rifle in the other. The four Spartans just stood there, spattered with brightly covered blood and dust, recovering from the adrenaline, the walls around them were painted with blood and covered in plasma scoring.

"Let's clean up" Jake whispered, and they got to work, rolling the boulders back into position and planting the captured weapons back onto their original owners. They even pried the weapons from fallen enemies' hands and 'dirtied up' the bodies, so that every plasma weapon in the canyon had fired at least one shot. Jacob attached his captured Elite helmet to his belt, Sabina ripped the communications unit out of hers before tossing the rest of the headpiece onto the sprawled Sanghelli warrior.

Just as they were about to ascend the rope and leave the bloody scene behind them, Jake received an alert through his helmet. A message from the Admiral. He quickly opened it, and the short but powerful message read: **Affirmative, confirmed possible subterranean Forerunner assets, UNSC Battle-group dispatched, ETA 20 hours. Stand by for further Intel, Vice Admiral Yao out.**


	4. Chapter 4: Assembly

_I wish I'd eaten_ Captain Hall thought, twiddling his thumbs, looking around at the menacing interior of an ONI Prowler meeting room, although from his point of view it was more like an interrogation room. He'd answered the mysterious summons, left his ship and his men to be whisked away to this stealth prowler. He couldn't spot a name on the ship's black hull when he was brought here, but everyone knew the distinctive angular shape of the _Marie Antoinette_, newest addition to the prowler fleet. He'd never wanted to mingle with the black-uniformed menace that was the Office of Naval Intelligence. Servicemen who did sometimes ended up dead, or wishing they were. However, as much as he'd wanted to avoid this, when a Vice Admiral in ONI requested your presence in person, you didn't refuse. So he came, and he'd been stuck in this claustrophobic room for ten minutes, awaiting his sentence.

The door opposite him opened silently and a petite Asian woman wearing a black uniform walked swiftly in, tapping rapidly at a datapad in her hand. He immediately rose to salute, but she waved him down and sat opposite him quickly, frowning slightly.

"As much as I love the reputation this uniform brings, Captain, I'm in a bit of a rush today, organising a Battle-Group does take a considerable amount of effort, so we'll dispense with the pleasantries." She hurried, opening up a few files on her datapad, scanning the documents. "You are Captain Lawrence Hall, commander of the Heracles-class destroyer UNSC _Hydra_, are you not?" She looked up, her emerald green eyes staring through him.

"Yes ma'am" He answered, not blinking, scratching his greying hair subconsciously

She nodded quickly "I've read your file, captain, you fought in the defence of Ariadne, Reach, and then Earth. Quite valiantly too from Admiral Cole's report." She tapped a few commands into her datapad. "I apologise for the cloak-and-dagger circumstances, the extradition from the _Hydra_ and so on, but ONI lives and breathes secrets, and this mission isn't even known about by FLEETCOM. I'm assigning you and the _Hydra_ to Battle-Group Zulu, you jump in 12 hours, any questions?"

"Just one ma'am, what is the mission?" He asked, only half expecting an answer

She smiled slyly "Asset denial, captain, that's all you need to know for now, you'll be briefed when you jump." She stood, turning her datapad off.

Hall stood quickly, saluting smartly. She returned the salute, before turning to leave. Just before she left, she turned. "Oh, and Captain? This meeting never happened" The door slid smoothly shut behind her.

As Hall walked onto the bridge, he nodded greeting at the men and women around him, waving away their salutes. "Alright then, boys and girls, ONI feels as if we're better deployed elsewhere, we are to join a Battle-Group Zulu ASAP, Lieutenant Fields, sitrep?"

Lieutenant Fields, the Navigation officer on the bridge, turned in her chair, smoothing down her uniform. "We've received co-ordinates from the _Marie-Antoinette,_ sir, ETA 5 minutes." She turned back to her station.

Hall sat in the captain's chair, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Lieutenant Winters?"

Winters looked over his shoulder from the Engineering console. "Reactor is 80% functional sir, running a full shakedown as we go, ready to jump in 6 hours"

Hall nodded, tapping on the arm of his seat. "Harrison?"

"MACs online sir, all Archer missiles pods online, FENRIS, HAVOK and SHIVA warheads active, 50mm cannons online and fully functional sir" said Lieutenant Harrison, not taking his eyes off of his screen.

Hall nodded again, checking all of this on his own console. "Athena? Can you give me a full report on the Battle Group? I want to know what we're dealing with here."

As he spoke, a small holographic figure of a woman clad in a toga, holding a datapad in one hand and a pencil in the other, appeared alongside the main tactical screen, Ancient Greek lettering along with numbers flowing across her form, which was tinted orange.

"Aye, captain, it appears that we're not top dog in this particular group, I'm initiating handshake procedures with at least 5 other gen-4 Smart AIs, although none of them seem to like revealing too much information." She said, her slight Scottish accent becoming more evident in her annoyance. "I'll keep trying captain, but just from the hull sensors, I predict that another destroyer, a marathon-class cruiser, possibly the _Babylon_, two heavy frigates and two corvettes are already at the RV point. Oh, and the _Marie-Antoinette _is joining us" She rattled off the list. "Of course, once I'm properly briefed on our mission by the _Antoinette_, I'll have a full tactical situation for you."

Hall's eyes widened as the enormity of this taskforce struck him. "A Marathon class? Vice Admiral Yao means business." He frowned "Athena, how is the disappearance of several valuable hulls going to go completely unnoticed by FLEETCOM?"

Athena tapped on the surface of her holographic tablet "According to FLEETCOM data, us and the _Babylon_ are going on routine deployments, last minute scheduling of course. I'd imagine that the rest of the group, when they join us, will be recorded as doing the same. ONI's keeping up its black reputation I see."

Hall grunted assent. Working with a 4th generation Smart AI like Athena had its quirks, but she was an invaluable asset, capable of trillions of calculations per second. She often joked that she could probably pilot the _Hydra_ without them, and that the bridge crew really just 'slowed her down'.

Lieutenant Fields looked at the captain "We're at the RV point sir, orders from the Admiral are to hold position until the rest of the Battle-Group forms up."

"Thank you Lieutenant, 2nd Lieutenant Mallard?"

Mallard poked her head up from the Intel booth "Aye, sir?"

"Corroborate with Athena, see if you can identify all of our comrades, but don't pry too much." He scratched his chin thoughtfully

"Aye captain." Mallard replied, turning back to the screen in front of her. Athena's holographic avatar disappeared from the central tactical screen and reappeared next to the Intel booth.

Hall stood and walked around the bridge. Everyone was busy, checking figures, running diagnostics on every system, tracking ship movements. He stood still in front of his seat, hands behind his back, staring out of the front view-screen. It felt good to be back in action.

At 1 hour until the jump, the UNSC _Hydra_ was buzzing with life. Every hand knew that something big was happening. On the bridge, the pieces of the puzzle were slowly aligning. Intel had reported that the cruiser present in the group was indeed the UNSC _Babylon_, and that the three other destroyers now congregated around the RV point were the UNSC _Firefly, _UNSC _Relentless, _and the _Hydra_'s sister-ship, the UNSC _Chimera._ Mallard was having a little more of a challenge trying to identify the corvettes and frigates, as their classes were more numerous that destroyers or cruiser.

The situation wasn't helped by the fact that the _Antoinette_ had issued orders for a full communication lockdown, no signals to be broadcast at all by any ship. However, just from sensor and visual readings, they knew that at least five heavy frigates had joined the group, as well as up to eight corvettes. They had also managed to find some names that meant little to Hall, UNSC _Phoenix, _UNSC _Riptide, _etc. The fleet formed was formidable to say the least. Also manoeuvring its way through the ranks of frigates, destroyers and corvettes was the lumbering hospital ship UNSC _Nightingale_, legendary for having defied a retreat order to evacuate more wounded soldiers from Reach when it fell.

Hall left the situation in the control of Athena and the other bridge crew and headed for the mess. He always liked talking to the men under his command, it was a rather sentimental practice, he knew, but he felt that if he was to ask them to potentially lay down their lives at his command, he should at least treat them better than some of his contemporaries.

He entered the large room silently, slipping into the line of crew members waiting to be served from the canteen. No one noticed his presence as he winked at the server when she piled his food onto the tray. He quickly walked over to a table occupied by some junior officers, and cleared his throat quietly. "Mind if I join you, gentlemen?"

The man closest to him looked up as if he was about to tell him to jog on, but upon realising who he was, he stood up quickly, saluting "Not at all, Captain Hall sir" The other men around the table jumped to attention.

Hall nodded "As you were" He sat down as they did, and smiled wryly at the now silent group. "Don't look so anxious, I don't bite" He began eating

The group relaxed a bit, obviously unaccustomed to having such a senior officer dine with them. A thin-faced Ensign spoke up "Sir, is it true that you turned down an offer to join the Spartan programme?"

Hall laughed, dabbing at his mouth with a tissue. "Good lord no, son, and if I had been offered, we wouldn't be having this conversation"

He spent the rest of the time in the mess talking animatedly with the men, listening to their stories as well as telling a few of his own. At 20 minutes till jump, he politely excused himself and headed back towards the bridge. On his way out, he grabbed a cup of tea from the machine, sipping it appreciatively.

As he keyed in his access code to the bridge, all the crew on deck snapped to attention. "Captain on deck!" someone shouted, and everyone saluted. Hall returned the salute with one hand, clutching his tea in the other.

"At ease, people, let's give me a full report ASAP, we're 20 minutes out." Hall said, striding towards the captain's seat, resting his beverage on the side. Data scrolled across his screen, showing that the engines were operating at maximum efficiency, and that the reactor was 100% functional.

"All systems at optimum, captain, awaiting instructions from Vice Admiral Yao, sir." Piped up Athena, materialising next to the main viewscreen, her toga even tidier than before. "Lieutenant Mallard and I have located and identified the entire of Battle-Group Zulu. Short version: The _Babylon_ is the lone cruiser, then it's us and the three other destroyers, five heavy frigates, seven corvette class vessels and of course, the gentle giant, the _Nightingale_, whose Navigational AI needs to learn some manners." The specifications of the Battle-Group were scrolling up the main viewscreen. It was an impressive force for a covert mission, and Hall felt a twinge of nervousness rising inside him. This big a force could only mean high stakes and high danger. He cricked his neck, burying his misgivings, and keyed the ship-wide broadcast system from his console.

"All hands, this is Captain Hall. As I'm sure you're aware, we are currently awaiting commands to jump to an unknown location, and judging from the size of the task force, it unlikely that there will be a warm reception when we get there. All hands at Combat Alert Bravo until otherwise instructed. Be out." He ended the transmission, looking around at his bridge crew, serious-faced.

At 5 minutes till jump, the bridge was still alive with activity. People were beginning to panic at the lack of instructions. Then Mallard turned to face him. "Sir, orders from the _Antoinette_, jump co-ordinates and group formation position. Transferring to Navigation now sir."

Field took up the co-ordinates and, with the help of Athena and Winters, the _Hydra_ was in position and ready to jump exactly one minute before the deadline. Athena's calm tones took up the final countdown, as the destroyer's Slip-Space drive prepared to punch a hole through the fabric of space and time. The deck began to vibrate, and as the deadline ticked over, they vanished from the Sol system with a flash of brilliant light, along with hundreds of thousands of tonnes of other warships.

**Jacob**

The four Spartans strode swiftly into the clearing by their Pelican dropship, covered in fluorescent blood and chalky dust. The mid-day sun blazed overhead, reflecting off of one of the planet's moons, low in the sky. Sabina-211 keyed the code for the rear door of the ship, and the ramp slowly opened. They marched into the bay of the craft, Josef, Rachel and Sabina sat on the rows of seats on either side of the bay, while Jacob entered the cockpit. He immediately turned on the communications systems in the ship and turned back into the bay, activating the holographic projectors in the space. The information from Vice Admiral Yao appeared, outlining the size and disposition of the UNSC Task-Force which was due to arrive in the Sigmus system in 18 hours.

Sabina whistled, impressed. "A Marathon-class, she's really pulling out all the stops." Rachel nodded slowly, impressed. Josef just stared at the schematics of the ships of Battle-Group Zulu, and Jake imagined that his jaw was open slightly. He realised that this was probably the most ships that the younger Spartans had ever seen in one place. That said a lot about how the war had fared for humanity. This force was a fraction of the size of the one that had valiantly tried to defend Reach, and failed.

Suddenly, the image in front of them was replaced by an incoming video message alert. Jacob was confused, normally communications took hours to travel through slip-space, how could a video comm be possible? Dubious, Jacob accepted the call with a few eye motions. A holographic projection of Vice Admiral Yao's head and shoulders appeared in the bay.

"Hello Spartans, we've had Forerunner additions made to our comms system, completely revolutionary. Instant slip-space comms. Marvellous." She turned in the projection, answering someone's question from behind her, before turning back. "Anyway, good job Spartans. The Battle-Group that I'm currently leading through slip-space is destined for Sigmus IV. Our primary objective is to deny the covenant forces there access to Forerunner technology beneath the surface. Once we jump in-system, we anticipate that a portion of the covenant group will counter us. Their ship-board plasma weaponry is not as effective in atmosphere, so they'll try to meet us exo-planet. However, any triple-A gun emplacements will be able to wreak havoc before we put them down, so I'm tasking you with neutralising any and all anti-ship guns before we arrive in just over 18 hours. You should also continue to monitor covenant activity in and around the crater." She paused, breathing heavily. "Unfortunately we can't hack into their communications, but we'll have to make do with just blasting them from the sky."

Jacob cleared his throat, removing his helmet. "Actually ma'am, we're already on that." He held up the captured Sanghelli helmet. "With a little persuasion, we should be able to monitor their chatter, and stream it to the Battle group when they arrive."

She smiled genuinely "Excellent, then you should also gather data as to what exactly the covenant thinks is underneath them, and their progress. The monitoring should also give us the tactical edge during battle." She nodded happily. "Fantastic job so far Spartans, but the battle for Sigmus IV truly begins in 18 hours, Vice Admiral Yao out" Her visage faded away,

Jacob tossed the alien helmet to Sabina, who immediately began dismantling it with a series of precision tools seemingly pulled from thin air. He turned to the other two Spartans, smiling tightly. "Petty Officers, I'm going to run down to the river and collect water to fill up the ATV's fuel tanks, I think we might need them. While I'm gone, I want you two to use the SENTINEL satellite imaging to identify every major triple-A gun emplacement in this crater. I imagine that they would be settled along the rim, just like us." He put on his helmet.

Josef and Rachel nodded, standing to attention, before moving into the cockpit, sliding the door shut behind them. Sabina looked up from her work "I'll get the encryptions from this thing in no time, J, I'll buzz you when it's done."

He nodded, pausing in the doorway to the bay. "Sab, why is Yao putting half the Navy's functional ships into this? Does she know something we don't about the technology hidden here?"

Sab snorted "Of course she does, she's a spook, but it's our job to catch up to her, as far as I'm concerned." She back down at the comms unit in her hands, fiddling delicately with it.

Jake stared at the wall for a second, before moving out of the Pelican and out into the clearing. He knelt by the supply crates and retrieved a 500ml bottle of water, then moved over to the first of their two M274 Ultra-Light-All-Terrain-Vehicles. He popped the filler cap, before emptying the bottle into the fuel cell, plenty enough to get him to the river. He also attached a few large water containers to the vehicle, finally starting the engine with a throaty rumble. He accelerated smoothly away from the camp, heading downhill quickly, winding his way through the tall trunks and feeling all the rocks and ridges through the Mongoose's minimal suspension.

He broke through the thin trees, entering a shallow valley covered in high grasses, carving a path through the thick plant life. After all, in about 17 hours, stealth tactics were going to be a tad ineffective. He pulled up alongside the winding river, quickly filling the canisters with river water. Both the M12 Warthog and the M274 Mongoose could run off of impure water, thankfully. As he stood up from attaching the now full containers to the quad, he looked over the silent landscape.

His radio buzzed once, Sabina had finished. He mounted the small quad bike, starting the engine and making his way back towards camp, slowly winding up the hill, spraying dirt and leaf litter behind him. He pulled up behind the Pelican and dismounted, heading into the bay.

"We've got ears?" He asked Sabina as she held out the datapad, lines of covenant text flashing over the screen.

"Every encrypted communication is ours, I've tasked the dumb AI in the dropship to start cataloguing any data and screening it, anything concerning forerunners gets highlighted, as well as more urgent comms." She paused as file icons began sorting themselves on the screen into an intuitive folder system. "We also now have the ability to broadcast interference signals on their frequencies and in their own encryptions, leaving them blind."

"Good, what about the triple-A defences?"

"I'll let them brief you." Sabina said, banging on the cockpit door with one gauntleted fist. The other two Spartans quickly piled out of the room, Josef clutched his own datapad in one hand.

"Sir, we've located and identified ten type-38 Tyrant anti-air defences arranged along the crater's rim. Their combined arcs of fire and not inconsiderable power would wreak havoc to the Battle-Group when it arrives." Josef called up the tactical map of the surface, overlaying bright red dots where each gun was located. "The UNSC database on the type-38 reveals a major weakness, the power cell at its core is easily destabilised, which can be achieved with nothing more than a couple of well-placed blocks of C-12." A schematic view of the enormous alien stationary gun appeared in the bay, rotating slowly, highlighting the white-hot power cell at its heart.

Jake nodded, he'd dealt with similar weapons in the battle for Charybdis IX, they put on a good fireworks display when they overloaded. "How do you suggest we perform neutralisation?"

Rachel took over, stepping forward into the holographic projection. "Hit-and-run, sir. We use the Mongooses to approach the guns, put down any resistance swiftly, blow the gun, and move on double-time. We can use our suits to broadcast a jamming signal, keep them guessing for as long as possible" She shrugged, a notoriously difficult gesture to perform in full MJOLNIR. "It's a matter of time, sir. This is the only way we could think to neutralise every weapon within our timeframe of…" She paused, checking her HUD's chronometer "… 17 hours. Which may not even be accurate, we all know how temperamental slip-space travel can be."

Sabina nodded from her seat. It was very difficult to know what a fully-suited Spartan was thinking, but Jacob had learned to pick up on the minute details, and the way she held herself told him that she was excited. He had yet to learn those ticks in his new comrades, but Josef's leg was jerking slightly, betraying his anticipation.

"Agreed Petty Officer, we don't have the luxury of time, so we need to hit fast and hard. Let's lock and load and get these guns offline. Close-to-mid-ranged combat, gear up." He waved the hologram away and marched out of the ship, his boots clanging loudly on the metal. The others followed him, a cacophony of metal on metal.

They gathered around the weapons crates, selecting their tools of destruction for the day. Jacob took hold of an MA5D assault rifle and an M7 sub-machine gun, sliding their bolts back and snapping fresh magazines into the chambers. Sabina inserted shells into her M90 Combat Shotgun, deftly pumping the first shell into the chamber before slipping it onto the magnetic holder on her back. She removed a long box from the crate, opening it and gasping quietly. From it, she pulled a menacing-looking gun, with a round magazine protruding from the receiver. The shining silver and orange paintwork glinted in the sunlight. She checked the magazine of the M279 SAW before retracting the bolt, cycling the first 7.62mm round into the chamber.

"I thought these were still in testing?" She asked rhetorically, raising the long-barrelled machine gun to her shoulder and aiming down the sights.

"I thought you'd like it" Jake smiled inside his helmet

Rachel whistled "That's a big gun". Her own inventory consisted of an M7 and a BR85HB Battle rifle, fixed securely to her back.

"We got to test a few prototypes on Onyx, the fire rate is higher than anything else we have" Josef noted, an edge of awe creeping into his voice. "We're going to need the suppressive power soon enough" He walked over to the waiting Mongoose, his own BR85 locked onto his back, accompanied by the legendarily powerful and accurate M6D.

Josef saddled up on the quad, gunning the engine into life. Jake grabbed a satchel full of C-12 High Explosive charges, before mounting the other ATV, revving the motor. A real-time map of the surface manifested itself on his HUD as Sabina perched on the Mongoose's rear passenger seat, grabbing onto his shoulder with one hand, poking the muzzle of her SAW over his other shoulder. Rachel did the same for the other vehicle, hanging off of the back of the small four-wheeler.

Jake brought up the TEAMCOM channel on his HUD, linking the team's helmet systems together. "Josef, lead the way, the first gun is two clicks, move out."

Josef gunned the throttle, shooting off along the ridgeway, his speed hampered slightly by the weight of two sets of MJOLNIR. Jake followed, dodging in between the trees and boulders. If they lost control, as the M274s were prone to do at speed, they would either tumble down a rocky slope on one side, or down a thickly forested hill on the other. They drove along a knife edge, the hulking forms of the assorted covenant fleet glistening in the distance.

As they neared the first gun, the guttural tones of Sanghelli radio chatter started up, and ONI's most advanced translation software translated into English in the form of a text log on the lower right hand side of their HUDs. Normal checking-in to their commanders. Jake activated the jamming signal after the check-in transmission, cutting off the gun crew from the rest of the fleet.

The two ATVs broke through onto rocky ground, and the 50 metre-high tyrant-class gun loomed into view, 40 metre long barrel rising steeply from the ground. Its plasma glowed a dull blue, snaking lazily inside the conduits running along the barrel. Jacob accelerated along with the other quad, and they covered the distance between them and the small plateau on which the gun rested in seconds.

As they roared over the lip of the plateau, Jake spotted a few armoured Sanghelli standing up outside the gun's doorway, looking in their direction, hands reaching for their belts. As they closed the gap, his helmet audio filters maxed out as Sabina opened fire with the SAW, sending dozens of bullets towards the guards, their shields rippling as they scrambled to get inside the gun's lower deck. As they did, Rachel opened up as well, three-round burst fire ripping through one Elite's helmet, dropping him instantly in a spray of purple blood.

Gravel flew as both Mongoose's skidded to a halt, and the Spartans jumped off and ran towards the doorway, firing their weapons at the retreating aliens. Sabina motioned for Josef and Rachel to move around to the other doorway, on the other side of the circular deck. They did so quickly, exchanging shots with the hostiles inside, plasma hissing through the air, drowned out only by the staccato firing of Rachel's SMG and the heavy fire from Josef's Pistol. Jacob and Sabina flung themselves against the curved walls either side of the door, firing blindly into the structure. Motion tracker showed four targets still inside, and Jake set up a short countdown over the TEAMCOM, which displayed the countdown on everyone's HUDs simultaneously. As the 5 seconds crawled by, Jake saw Sabina prepare a stun grenade and toss it through the doorway. The flash of her arm attracted fresh plasma fire from within, but her lightning-quick reflexes saved her from harm. At the 2 second mark, the deafening twin bangs of the two stun grenades, (one from the other side of the room) resounded throughout the small room, accompanied by shouts of pain from the cornered Elites.

As the timer swept past zero, Jake pushed away from the wall and rounded the corner just ahead of Sabina, his Assault rifle raised. He identified his targets, the four blinded Elites scrambling around on the floor, one firing wildly in their general direction with his rifle, melting the purple metal around the doorway. He took aim, still moving quickly into the room, and squeezed the match-grade trigger, peppering the enemy combatant with lead, depleting the alien shields and ripping through the body armour, causing the Elite to convulse, his rifle falling to the ground. The alien took his last breath and lay still. The other disoriented hostiles were quickly cut down by the combined fire of the three Spartans, and soon the floor was slick with purple.

Confirming that no enemy was left standing, the others quickly left the gun, returning to the vehicles. Jake strode over to the transparent viewscreen looking into the gun's core, and stuck one block of C-12 onto the surface, turning on the remote detonator before retreating to the safety of the Mongoose, slipping onto the rear of Sabina's ride, tapping her helmet. They shot away, and as he looked back, he clenched his fist, activating the charge.

The horizon behind them turned brilliant white, and the immense shockwave almost toppled the four Spartans from their quads. The plasma core had exploded just as predicted, carving a large chunk of land out of the hillside.

The two quads pulled alongside each other, and Josef gave a thumbs up, too shocked to speak.

Jake grinned behind the faceplate. One down, nine to go.


	5. Chapter 5: Sabotage

The Mongoose wasn't going to last much longer, Jacob thought, feeling the rough vibrations through the frame of the small quad bike, already laden with two fully-suited Spartans. He glanced to their right and saw the other Spartans atop their machine, speeding through the thin forest at breakneck speed.

The smouldering ruins of the ninth type-38 anti-aircraft gun fell quickly behind them. The two blocks of C-12 had done their job well. He reloaded his M7 Sub Machine Gun, slamming a fresh magazine home with one hand. He and Sabina-211 on their mount, and Josef-G167 and Rachel-G023 on theirs, had spent the last 10 hours working their way around the rim of the enormous crater in which a covenant fleet had berthed. Their objective, to neutralise the ten Tyrant-class triple-A emplacements scattered around the crater.

So far, only the last emplacement had put up serious resistance. Their jamming signal broadcast from each of the Spartans' armour systems had confused the Covenant commanders for a long time, but eventually they realised that the mysterious explosions occurring all around the nestled fleet were all targeted at the battle-group's only serious surface-to-ship defence. The ninth gun had been reinforced, and it had taken the four of them 20 minutes to eliminate the determined resistance. Jake checked his suit's diagnostic. He had taken a lot of plasma fire from a stationary gun, and his shield generator was critically damaged. He looked over the status of the others.

Sabina's suit was flashing a dozen warning lights, the fusion cell had been damaged and her Bio readings showed that she had minor burns over her lower back and thigh. She had borne the brunt of a plasma explosion, she was obviously more injured than she let on. Josef was suffering from a torn shoulder muscle and a minor fracture to the left ulna. Rachel had fared slightly better, the only obvious sign of injury being a slight limp, which correlated to the torn ligament in her knee being shown on the HUD.

He closed the window and shook his head slightly. They needed to get this done and get to a medical crew, and unfortunately for them the last gun was likely to be the best defended. And then there was their ride. The bike had been strafed by low-flying covenant Banshee fighters, and the engine was beginning to make abrasive grinding noises. He had a strong suspicion that when the engine stopped, it wouldn't start again. Heavy covenant radio chatter started up, and Jake activated the jamming signal as they approached their final target. He checked his chronometer, they had three hours until the massive Battle-Group of UNSC warships arrived to perform "asset denial", which was spook-speak for shooting at anything that moved until it didn't, then scavenging what they could.

As they sprung over the crest of a hill into a shallow dip in the ridgeline. Below them sat the now familiar silhouette of the emplacement. As they sped down the slope, Jake spotted numerous Sanghelli and Unggoy in defensive positions behind hastily erected barricades. He grabbed his MA5D from his back and aimed roughly towards the position, grabbing Sabina's shoulder tightly with his free hand to steady himself. He heard Josef firing rapid three round bursts from his BR85HB from beside them.

The waiting enemies scattered slightly under the hail of bullets, but many of them opened fire with their own weapons. Plasma fire and crystalline needle like projectiles filled the air, scorching the hillside around their vehicles. Rachel twisted the handlebars around, speeding around the barricades, allowing Josef to fire into the exposed flank of the defensive formation. As Sabina manoeuvred down the gradient, Jake saw a lone Unggoy, apart from the rest of the group, raise a hefty barrelled weapon onto its tiny shoulders. The Type-33 Fuel Rod Canon spat out a bright green energy projectile in their direction. Sabina spotted it and tried to avoid the round, but the round curved down towards the ground in front of them, hit the earth and detonated, throwing the two Spartans through the air. Jake tumbled head over heel, shields flitting out as he hit the rough ground heavily, spotting Sabina's crumpled form a few feet away. He felt pain shoot up his spine, and his HUD warned him of his freshly fractured Scapula.

He struggled to his hands and knees, suddenly aware of the plasma fire streaking just over his head. He grabbed Sabina by the arm and dragged her behind a large boulder on the hillside. His ears stopped ringing slowly, and he tasted metal. He checked her vitals, breathing a sigh of relief at the steady pulse and respiratory rate. Everything else was a luxury at times like these.

Jake grabbed the SAW from her back, checking the ammo counter before hauling himself to his feet, fresh stabs of agony arising from his pelvis. He spotted an advancing group of Grunts, and opened up, the high rate of fire and forceful recoil of the beast in his arms catching him off guard for the first few bursts, but he quickly grew accustomed to the massive gun. The Grunts squeaked and screamed as his bullets cut through their ranks. As the last one fell, he ducked behind the boulder, swapping magazines, fumbling slightly. Shock was beginning to set in. He knew he needed to get out of danger quickly before he became combat ineffective.

As he rounded the rock once more, he spotted Rachel and Josef slicing their way through the alien formations, Josef expertly dispatching enemies left right and centre with his powerful Magnum pistol, Rachel decimating the Elite warriors with devastating fire from her SMG. They moved fluidly, ducking swinging limbs and plasma bolts, pirouetting smoothly round falling aliens.

Jake pulled the trigger, suppressing the remaining hostiles just outside the gun's door, depleting Sanghelli shields quickly, perforating the warriors' forms with holes. Josef and Rachel ran towards the boulder, and Jake covered their retreat, tossing a Frag Grenade over their heads. As they hurdled over the rock, the grenade exploded with a dull thwump, throwing a spout of dirt and gravel into the air. When the dust settled, Jake opened his eyes, ignoring the growing blind spots in the corners of his vision.

Rachel slumped down next to him, her helmet scorched and dented. "All hostiles down, proceeding to primary objective" She gasped, coughing loudly. Josef crouched next to them, depolarising his visor.

"You're in no shape to go anywhere, Rache, Sabina is out cold and the CPO is in a rough way." He stated, his voice flat and measured, fighting the panic he must feel rising in his chest.

Jake struggled to his feet, supressing the jolts of pain the motion caused. "I'll manage, Petty Officer, what's the situation on the vehicles?" He shouldered the SAW, wincing.

Josef shook his head "Ours got gutted by rifle fire, and yours…" He gestured to the warped and twisted mass of metal a few metres away.

Jacob grunted "So that's a negative, can you get Rachel and Sabina further away? We still need to blow the gun." He reached around to grab the last blocks of C-12 from his satchel.

Josef nodded, before leaning down and helping Rachel to her feet, and only now could Jacob see the extent of her damage. Her entire suit of armour was scorched with plasma fire, pitted and cratered, leaking fluid from the left knee joint. Together they lifted the limp Spartan between them, staggering away from the emplacement.

Jake sighed, and turned towards the looming figure of the Tyrant. He limped quickly towards the doorway, covering all the angles with the bulbous-magazined weapon. As he entered the deck, he heard the single whine of a covenant impulse drive approaching, he poked his head outside and spotted the Sanghelli dismounting from the Ghost-class scout vehicle. The split jaws opened in anger at the scene of devastation in front of him. He dashed towards the doorway, not spotting the Spartan within. As he ran into the room, Jake stepped behind him and grabbed his long skull, twisting it around sharply, snapping the beasts' neck with a sickening crunch.

Jake radioed Josef, leaning against the wall, breathing heavily. "Josef, I've got a Ghost without a rider here, you've got to get back to the dropship, fly over here and get us. If you hurry, we might all make it" He paused, letting his words sink in.

A second later, Josef's voice came back over the comms. "Affirmative"

Jake turned to the vulnerable core of the gun, stumbling over and affixing the last blocks of C-12 to the thin protective cover, setting the timer to 3 minutes. As he left the room, he met Josef coming in the other direction, strolling towards the Ghost.

"Go, clock's ticking" Jake said, nodding back towards the emplacement.

Josef hesitated, then made the signature 'smiling face' gesture over his faceplate, the first time he had done so to the older Spartan.

Jake reciprocated, then clapped the young Spartan on the shoulder before striding 100 metres down the slope towards the small cave in which the others had hidden. He heard the low moaning of the Ghost speed off into the distance, and ducked into the cave, eyes immediately adjusting to the darkness.

Sabina sat slumped against the rough stone walls, head leaned back. Rachel sat opposite her, looking at him as he entered.

"She's stable" The younger woman whispered, coughing

Jake nodded, before retrieving his MediKit from his belt, extracting a small hypodermic syringe from within it. He checked the contents, before inserting the tip into a small port on her neck, depressing the plunger slowly before tossing the used sharp deeper into the cave. Adrenaline was a hell of a kickstart.

Seconds later, Sabina jerked upwards, scrambling around wildly, breathing rapidly. Jacob grabbed her shoulders and settled her down. "Hey, welcome back, we're waiting for extraction, you got knocked out when the ATV got hit, and the last gun is about to blow any…"

A massive explosion thundered above them, the shockwave shuddering through the cave, dust trickled down from the ceiling as the sky outside lit up.

Sabina rested her head against the wall. She may be alive, but her left calf muscle was torn, she had 2nd degree burns on most of her left arm, and a fractured clavicle. Jake realised suddenly that of the three of them, he was in the best shape. He grabbed Sabina's M90 Combat Shotgun, sat himself just inside the cave entrance, and faced out, weapon pressed up against his shoulder, waiting.

Twenty tense minutes later, they heard the blessed sound of Pelican engines settling on the plain below. Jake turned around, nodded and stood in the cramped space. He helped the two injured soldiers to their feet, following them out into the afternoon sunlight. The bulky form of the dropship perched on the slope below, and Josef jumped down from the back ramp, running up the hill to help. Together, he and Jake got the two into the bay and strapped them in.

Jake slumped into the pilot's chair, closing the ramp and gunning the engines, lifting off smoothly and speeding back towards their camp. Josef sat down heavily next to him, taking off his helmet, groaning.

"Sir, we need to contact the Battle-Group, they need to prepare a medical bay ASAP" He mumbled as Jake gave control to the navigation AI.

"I know, arrival of the Battle-Group is 1 hour, can we hold out until then?" Jake muttered

Josef looked straight ahead, glassy-eyed. "I guess we'll have to, do we have enough bio-foam?"

Jake chuckled, immediately gasping in pain at the movement. He stared at the screens in front of him, marvelling in the fact that all of them were alive, at least for now.

**Hall**

Captain Hall looked into the black void of Slip-Space, hands held behind his back, whistling softly. The _Hydra_ had been travelling through the folds of the Universe for 10 hours, Athena and Lieutenant Fields were constantly re-checking the slip-space calculations, every time they conferred for a few minutes, the time until re-entry into normal space became less. Athena had tried to explain the discrepancies, but soon she ran out of English terminology to describe the quantum phenomena. In short, because of the large mass of the entire Battle-Group, the predicted Slip-time was variable.

Snapping himself back to the present, he addressed the empty bridge "Athena, sitrep?"

Athena's small holographic avatar appeared in front of him, holographic tablet held under her arm. "Exactly the same as it was when you asked an hour ago captain, when I advised you to take a sleep cycle when you could, with the rest of the bridge crew" She raised one eyebrow "I can fly this crate without any organic help, sir"

Hall chuckled, massaging his eyes "I know, Athena, but regulation dictates that at least one Commissioned Officer must be on the bridge at any time." He looked out of the viewscreen, just making out the shadowy silhouettes of the other vessels in the formation.

"Captain, message from the _Antoinette_, details about the deployment." She closed her eyes briefly, and the scrolls of alphanumeric symbols winding around her toga clad form moved faster. She opened her orange-tinted eyes, smiling wryly "Oh, very interesting. Have you ever been to the Sigmus system Captain?"

He shook his head "Shouldn't you already know my file? Or are 4th gen AIs not as smart as I think?" He smirked, knowing how much his question would irk her.

"Very funny, sir. You know very well that I was engaging in what I've been told is called 'small talk'." She shifted her robe slightly.

"You were doing very well until I train wrecked you." He smiled "Alright then, spill the beans, what's the mission?"

She nodded and tapped a few times on her tablet, bringing up the relevant documents and schematics of Sigmus IV. "Simply put, Captain, we're here as the escalation of an existing mission to determine the intent and progress of a Covenant Separatist fleet that landed on the surface a month ago."

Hall frowned "Strength?"

"From the recon team on the ground and their SENTINEL imagery, one CCS-class battle cruiser, three light cruisers, four destroyers and assorted tag alongs." Information on every one of the ships scrolled past the viewscreen.

He raised an eyebrow "That's a lot of firepower. Even with the _Babylon_'s arsenal, I don't like these odds." He sat down in his seat, reading the documents.

Athena fluttered out of existence form the main viewscreen and reappeared on the arm of his chair. "Captain, in an open conflict, our odds of success aren't terribly high, but I suspect that the Covenant battle cruiser will stay on the planet's surface, they're digging for something. With their hands tied elsewhere, and the considerable advantage of surprise being on our side, our chances improve significantly. I have run over three hundred thousand simulations." She looked up at him, and revelation flooded through the Captain. He suddenly realised that she cared about the safety of the ship and her crew just as much as he did. It wasn't about programming, each 4th generation smart AI was based off of a donor's cortex. She was fundamentally human.

He nodded, turning his eyes back to the intelligence files in front of him. "This reconnaissance team? How long have they been there? This intel is extremely thorough." He scanned the documentation for some sort of signature or watermark, finding none.

The small figure of the Greek goddess hesitated as if rechecking her database, before answering "According to Vice Admiral Yao's reports, they've been on surface for less than three days. Extraordinary."

"Three days? Incredible" Hall muttered, impressed. He perused the satellite imagery and long-range aerial images for a while, before closing the files and checking the engines' status. "Athena, wake up the bridge staff, we're one hour from normal space. Set us to combat alert Alpha."

She bowed slightly "Aye, sir." Her voice suddenly boomed from the ship's Public Address system as alarms and klaxons blared up all over the _Hydra_. "All, hands, Combat alert Alpha, all crew report to battlestations. This is not a drill, I repeat this is not a drill." She lowered her voice to normal, rolling her holographic eyes "As if anyone thinks that this is all a drill. Honestly, it's a tad cliché"

Hall chuckled "Run a full diagnostic on all systems before the others get here, I want to be absolutely ready for whatever they throw at us." He stood again, looking at deck cameras at the hundreds of men and women sprinting to their stations, the hallways of the destroyer suddenly bustling with life.

"Strange, how calm and surreal slip-space is, considering how violent a process it is." He muttered to the AI. "Rather like a calm before a storm. I have a funny feeling that we're heading straight into a hurricane"

The rest of the bridge crew trickled in over the next few minutes, saluting the Captain as they did. Several of them were still blinking sleep from their eyes and yawning as they took their posts, slipping miniscule earpieces into their ears. Hall briefed them all, outlining the mission directives and challenges.

"One last thing, I've received word from Admiral Yao that her recon team on the ground have tapped into the Covenant Battle Net. Obviously this gives us a huge advantage, and the surprise nature of this incursion should help our position also." He paused, letting his words sink in. "But do not become complacent. This battle will be a hard-fought one, and a bloody one at that. Do your duty, hold your ground, and we can all of us go home." He looked around the bridge, seeing determination and strength in all the crew's faces. "Lieutenant Fields, ETA?"

"30 minutes sir, we'll enter normal space above the surface of Sigmus IV's second satellite" She reported, tying her hair into a tight bun as she did.

Lieutenant Mallard turned to face him "Sir, the _Antoinette _is requesting targeting networking solutions ASAP"

Hall nodded at Winters, who got to work, linking the targeting systems for the ship's weapons to the Fire Control Centre aboard the stealth prowler. Green lights lit up across the console to indicate a successful connection.

Hall stood at the main viewcreen, tapping his boot against the floor restlessly. "Alright people, let's get ready to come out swinging."

**Jacob**

The first squirt of the biofoam caused his skin to burn and tingle. The second numbed his upper back, and the third caused a sigh of relief as the powerful painkiller in the mixture worked on his damaged shoulder blade. Sabina-211 loomed over him as he sat on a crate outside the Pelican, holding the half-empty canister of the painkiller/antiseptic/coagulant like a weapon, the thin nozzle of the can pressed into the port over his left shoulder, allowing the foam to permeate into the MJOLNIR armour, coalescing into a thin layer over most of his shoulder and back.

"Better?" She asked, withdrawing the nozzle, standing back.

He nodded appreciatively, before standing, wincing at the stab of pain from his pelvis. No amount of bio-foam could heal that. He took off his helmet and clipped it to his belt, cricking his neck to both sides. "Fantastic" He said, an edge of sarcasm creeping into his voice. He reached out and took the canister, pointing down on to the crate "Now it's your turn"

She sat, holding out her left forearm. Her plating on the underside of the arm was sooty and blackened, plasma damage. 2nd degree burns lay underneath the ceramic-alloy combat skin, and Jake wasted no time in injecting the medical froth into her armour, coating her skin. She made no sound, but the slight jolt in her left leg gave away the discomfort she felt. Jake removed the nozzle from her arm and reinserted it into her shoulder port, covering the area around her fractured collarbone with the anaesthetic.

As he finished, the pressurised container spluttered and emptied. He threw it into a crate nearby, offering his Spartan-II comrade his hand. She grabbed it and he pulled her to her feet, the pair of them supressing bursts of pain from their battered forms.

Josef limped over from inside the dropship, waving another empty container. "I used it all on her. Her burns should heal pretty quickly, but her armour's kaput." He fiddled with his own armour, rolling the shoulders. "Radio's hot, Covenant have been going crazy since our little run-and-gun op. There have been a lot of promises of death and sanctified slaughter, etcetera."

"Good work, Spartan, get the weapons and equipment into the dropship. Leave the rest." He moved quickly out of the evening sunlight and into the shade of the bay, approaching Rachel, who was sitting near to the cockpit, staring straight ahead to the opposite wall. He checked her status on his HUD. Minor contusions all over, nothing unexpected, large areas of her torso had sustained minor burns, now being treated by the copious amounts of bio-foam in her armour, and her right knee was dislocated. Her suit's diagnostics showed low levels of hydraulic fluid, high levels of damage to all armour plating and significant trauma to the gel layers. At least her fusion cell and shield generator were fully functional.

"The Battle-Group arrives soon, we're going to RV with them and get us all checked over." He said calmly, crouching down in front of her to look her in the eyes. She looked back, eyes sharp and focused.

"Understood sir" She said, sitting up straighter in her chair, strapping herself in securely. Sabina sat down next to her, doing likewise.

Jake stood and helped Josef and Sabina bring in the last of the weapons, stacking two M41 Jackhammer Rocket Launchers, still in their boxes, on to one of the seats.

"Shame we didn't get to use these" Josef remarked, stowing the last box under a seat.

"I have a feeling we'll be back soon enough" Jacob muttered, sitting in the pilot's seat and grabbing the control stick. The door seals hissed as he locked them, raising the ramp and closing it. He throttled up, lifting smoothly off the ground, the downdraught bending young trees away from the craft and kicking up a cloud of leaf litter and dirt.

As they shot away from the ground, multiple aerial contacts appeared on their six. Jake pulled the controls left, and the dropship banked sharply, descending to tree-top level as the two Banshee aircraft closed the gap, wing pods glowing brightly as they boosted.

Josef grabbed onto the doorway, looking at the radar contacts. "I've got an idea." As he spoke, the lead flier strafed at the Pelican with twin plasma canons. Jake jerked the controls around, evading the bulk of the plasma, but a few shots found their mark, melting away at the ship's hull.

Jake pulled them back into a steep roll, and G-forces tugged at their heavy suits. He dropped in behind the covenant aircraft, firing at the rear target with the chin-mounted 30mm canon, peppering it with depleted uranium slug rounds. The sleek craft twitched in the sky as it was shredded, bits of purple metal flying back and striking the Pelican's airframe, before falling from the sky, trailing black smoke. As the automatic canon swivelled around on its axis to target the next Banshee, a loud crunching noise came from the nose of the dropship, and Jacob swore loudly.

"Gun's jammed" He grunted, throttling up as the remaining Banshee soared high into the air, performing the exact same move that he had done moments previously. Plasma bolts strafed them, turning the metal white-hot.

"Keep her steady" Josef said, before marching purposefully into the bay, ripping open a crate and hefting out an M41 Jackhammer shoulder-launched rocket launcher. Jake ducked and weaved, sticking close to the treeline, mirroring the natural topography, the Banshee still close behind them, trying to lock on to their thermal signature. Jake answered the lock-on alarm by deploying counter measures, shooting flares out of each side of the ship.

Josef walked over to the ramp door, activating the mechanism. He crouched by the opening door, resting the twin-tubed rocket launcher on his shoulder, taking careful aim at the incoming fighter. The pilot of the Banshee evidently saw him take aim, because he tried to bank away from the rear of the Pelican. He wasn't quick enough. With a smile, Josef acquired target lock, and pulled the trigger, sending the 102mm High Explosive rocket in a winding trajectory towards the Banshee, slamming into the aircraft's left wing before detonating, igniting the plasma fuel in a spectacular explosion. Josef lowered the launcher and closed the ramp. "Sky is clear, sir, take her up!" He shouted back to the cockpit.

Rachel coughed loudly, choking on the back-blast from the M41. "No, that's okay, I didn't need to breathe anyway." She choked.

Sabina depolarised her visor, nodding approvingly at Josef "Good work, now strap in, we're leaving this rock for the time begin."

He dumped the heavy launcher back into its crate before taking a seat and fastening his harness. The Pelican's nose tilted up, and soon they had escaped the atmosphere and were hurtling through space towards the RV point, just behind Sigmus IV's second moon.

"Hull integrity looks good, engines just under the red-line point, ETA 5 minutes" Came Jake's voice over the intercom. The older Spartan sat back and let the Nav AI do the rest of the work, and they were soon at their established waiting point. They swivelled round and counter-thrusted, bringing the small ship to a gradual halt, waiting for the fleet to arrive.

They waited there for a few minutes in silence, everyone too tired or injured to make conversation. Jake rechecked Admiral Yao's message, very aware of how vulnerable their unarmed troop transport was. Suddenly, radiation detectors sounded, and a spinning disc of light a couple of kilometres wide appeared, growing from a point directly ahead. Jake watched as Battle-Group Zulu materialised in front of him, and suddenly their radio was lighting up, a dozen different UNSC channels in full use. The UNSC _Babylon_ led the group, its geometrically perfect hull soaring through space. In its wake were the sleek destroyers, and the entire group was surrounded by a force of Frigates and Corvettes, which were dwarfed by the size of the cruiser. There was no real sense of scale, but Jake knew that the _Mako-class _corvettes were 160 metres long, and were pinpricks at this distance.

The familiar silhouette of the _Marie-Antoinette _hovered above the group, directing the ships into their formation. As Jake patched the hull cameras through to the holographic projector in the bay, he received a hail from the Admiral. Her face appeared on the display in front of him.

"Chief Petty Officer" She greeted, smiling wryly "Do you think they'll spot us?"

"Ma'am, they won't have time to spot you." Jake replied "We've got wounded, ma'am, but all Tyrant-class guns are down."

"Excellent, and your Nav AI has just transferred the encryption codes to the Covenant Battle-Net, so we're all set to begin operations. As for wounded, the UNSC _Nightingale_ is ready to receive…" She shook her head slightly "Scratch that, too public. The UNSC _Hydra_'s med bay is more private, I'll meet you in the _Hydra_'s hangar, I have a specialist on station who is more than qualified to work with Spartans."

Jake nodded "Understood ma'am, who's the specialist?"

Yao looked straight into the camera, grimacing "Humanity's foremost expert on the Forerunners, Dr Catherine Halsey."


	6. Chapter 6: Engagement

**Hall**

"Athena, status report?" barked Hall, looking out of the view-screen at the second moon of Sigmus IV.

Athena's avatar appeared by his side, straightening her robe "Captain, we've re-entered normal space with a deviation of less than one kilometre. Apparently the _Antoinette_'s advanced drives guided us through slip space."

Hall whistled "Hostiles?"

"Negative, sir, all enemy ships are ground side, and until we round the moon, they shouldn't know that we're here." She chuckled softly "unless of course they had any sort of radiation detectors, you should see the space around us through the alpha-filter, it's lit up like a Christmas tree."

Hall grunted, looking around at the busy bridge "Alright people, what's our combat effectiveness?"

"Sir, all weapons systems green, Vice Admiral Yao has fire control." Harrison reported

"Engines at 100% efficiency sir, slip-space drives re-optimising." Chorused Winters, sipping his coffee.

"Message from the Admiral, sir, your eyes only" called Mallard.

Hall strode over to his console, reading the brief yet powerful message.

Clear MedBay and the halls from there to the Hangar, myself and my recon team are coming aboard ASAP. Yao

Hall deleted the message, then rubbed his temples.

"Sir! The Vice Admiral has transferred control of the Battle-Group to Admiral Marden aboard the _Babylon_, but we're still under her command, sir." Said Mallard, looking confused.

"Sir, unidentified contact, closing fast on our hangar, automatic defences finding targeting solution" rattled Harrison, hands flying across the console.

"Belay that, Lieutenant, it's ONI business." Spoke Hall, standing up, hands behind his back. "Athena, evacuate the medical bay, hangar and clear a route from one to the other. No one gets in to those sectors, understood?"

She nodded after a pause, tapping a stylus onto her holographic tablet. "Affirmative sir, will you be greeting our guests?"

"I will indeed." He turned to Mallard "Lieutenant, keep me up to date about the fleet's movements, synchronise to my datapad. You have the bridge, Lieutenant Winters. I'm going to find some answers to all of this." He checked for the synchronisation icon on his pad before leaving the bridge and heading towards the Hangar. Things were suddenly getting a lot more interesting.

**Jacob**

"That was a close one" Muttered Jacob-209, relief spreading across his face as the 50mm close-point defence guns on the hull of the _Hydra_ retreated into their nacelles. He gently guided the battered Pelican dropship towards the single hangar bay aboard the _London-_class destroyer. The rest of the Battle-Group hung around them, frigates, corvettes, three other destroyers and the mammoth UNSC _Babylon_, a _Marathon_-class heavy cruiser.

The bulky Pelican lumbered through the transparent shield across the hangar's entrance, before gently coming to rest. Jake powered down the engines, spotting the only person in the space, a grey haired, tall man wearing the stripes of a Captain. He pushed himself up from his seat and walked into the crew bay, and saw that Josef-G167 had already disengaged his harness and was helping Rachel-G023 to her feet. They had all been injured in the destruction of key Covenant anti-air defences around their fleet mere hours ago. Sabina stood, walking with a slight limp towards the back of the bay, one arm held stiff at her side.

Jake keyed the ramp hydraulics and watched as the door slowly opened, revealing the Captain standing about 10 metres away from the back of the Pelican, datapad held under his arm. As the man recognised the towering figures as Spartan warriors, a brief look of awe flashed across his face.

Jacob stepped forward and saluted, hearing another ligament twang in his shoulder. "Chief Petty Officer Jacob-209, I was told to report to the med, bay, sir."

The Captain returned the salute, craning his neck to get a good view of the others. "Captain Hall, commander of the UNSC _Hydra_, at your service, Spartans." He took in Rachel's arm draped over Josef's shoulder, and the scorched and dented MJOLNIR armour that all of them wore. "Med bay's right this way, Athena will direct you, Vice Admiral Yao is right behind you."

As he spoke, the holographic face of a Greek Goddess materialised next to the door their left, waving once. Sabina placed Rachel's other arm over her own shoulder, and together, the three Spartans walked over to the door and disappeared from sight.

Jacob didn't move. "Sir, I'm waiting for Admiral Yao also." He looked down into the man's face. The Captain looked a little shocked, but he kept his composure.

"Affirmative." He said, looking up and down Jacob's towering form.

Jacob watched as another, matte-black Pelican entered the Hangar, the downdraught whipping at him as the craft settled smoothly down onto the other pad. The side exit opened, and Vice Admiral Yao stepped down, her black hair whipping in the wind. As the engines on the drop ship settled into silence, Yao walked over to the pair, prompting both of them to salute her. Jake concealed a gasp of pain as he did so, holding himself tall.

Yao saluted, nodding in greeting to the Spartan before turning to the Captain. "Captain Hall, my apologies for this, but as I'm sure you're now aware, my reconnaissance team is a little too secret to be seen walking around the _Nightingale_. Admiral Marden is barking into my ear about withholding such a valuable asset such as the _Hydra_ from battle, but we'll be out of your hair soon enough."

Hall nodded "We are at your disposal ma'am, as well as your team's." He cleared his throat quietly before continuing "With your permission, ma'am, I'd like to return to the bridge, duty calls."

"Absolutely Captain, it'll be like we were never here. Because we were never here." She said, an edge of secrecy accompanying her words. "We have all we need in our shuttle and in the Med-Bay."

The Captain saluted, and, with a sideways glance at Jacob, he walked through the Hangar doors and out of sight. Jacob immediately turned to Yao, questions forming in his mouth. However, she had already turned back to the black dropship and was talking to someone over her earpiece. The ramp doors opened, and three crate-loaded dollies, pushed my technicians, skidded down the ramp, heading straight for the medical bay. None of the Techs even gave the Spartan as much as a glance as they passed, wheeling the trollies away.

As the muffled thunder of the wheels on the floor was cut off by the closing doors, two figures walked slowly down the walkway towards them. One was a serious-faced ONI Warrant-Officer, clutching an MA5C. The other, shorter person was a middle-aged woman with short grey hair, wearing a white laboratory coat over a blue shirt and a grey skirt. She held her hands in front of her, and it was only after a second look that Jake realised that her hands were bound in front of her.

Dr Catherine Halsey's face lit up momentarily as she spotted the Spartan, before settling into a blank expression. Jake jerked his arm, a signal of his intense discomfort at seeing the creator and director of the Spartan-II project marched like a petty criminal. Yao turned to the Warrant Officer.

"McGrath, wait in the Pelican" She commanded, and the man turned and marched back to the black transport without a word.

Halsey turned to the Admiral, gesturing to the cuffs on her wrists. "I hardly think that these are necessary, Admiral." She spoke coolly, her expression a mixture of curiosity and disdain.

Yao shook her head "I don't think so, Dr Halsey, Admiral Parangosky was quite clear about the conditions of your transport." She grabbed hold of her arm, looking unblinkingly into Jake's visor "Let's go, Chief Petty Officer, time is of the essence."

Jake stood rooted to the spot for a second, torn internally, balancing on the edge of a knife, where on one side stood loyalty to the Corps, and on the other stood his intuition, which was screaming at him that this was wrong. He buried his concern, and followed them through grey corridors until they walked through into a large Medical Suite, complete with Omni-Scanners, sterile field generators, and a full surgery. The other three were at one end of the bay. Rachel sat up on an examination bed, Sabina and Josef were crouched down, manually removing her leg armour. Josef looked over and spotted the Admiral, immediately jumping to attention.

"Admiral on deck!" He barked, and Sabina stood to attention by Rachel, who settled with sitting up as straight as a board. Jake paid close attention to Sabina's face, watching a cascade of confusion, anger, disbelief and finally calm indifference wash over her features in a fraction of a second. He also kept an eye on Halsey; she would have instantly identified Sabina, he was sure of that, but what would she make of the others? Her pursed lips and flaring nostrils spoke volumes.

"As you were" spoke Yao, leading Halsey over to a private examination room at one end of the room. "209, with me."

Jake strode across the room, discretely signalling to Sabina with one gloved hand. He entered the small room and closed the door, standing in the doorway. Vice Admiral Yao stood by the wall, looking warily at Halsey, who was standing defensively by the desk, arms folded as much as the cuffs would allow.

After an awkward pause, the doctor spoke. "Jacob. It's been too long." Her voice wavered slightly with repressed emotion and she blinked rapidly.

Jacob grunted, she had always been able to tell the Spartans apart despite their monolithic appearance, and much to their annoyance. Jake slid his helmet off and stowed it, looking at Dr Halsey, then to Vice Admiral Yao, for some kind of explanation.

"Dr Halsey here is currently under arrest for aiding the enemy; she kidnapped Spartan-087, deceived Admiral Hood, and her long involvement in the inhumane and morally reprehensible Spartan-II Programme cannot be overlooked" She listed, keeping her eyes fixed on his. "I'm sorry. Her services are being loaned to us by Ivanoff research station."

Jacob reeled internally, struggling not to let his shock show. How could this be? However, one glance into Halsey's eyes told him that it was all true. He steadied himself before replying "If this is all correct, ma'am, why is Dr Halsey here and not answering for her alleged crimes?"

Halsey cleared her throat "Because officially Jacob, I died when Reach fell. Very convenient for ONI, having me on a leash." She raised one eyebrow "I also happen to be humanity's leading expert on the Forerunners."

Yao nodded. "We need the good doctor's expertise to help us analyse the Forerunner structures beneath the surface."

Jake took all this in "Affirmative, can we attend to my team now? We took out all of the Tyrants, ma'am."

Halsey stood and held out her wrists. "Firstly, these need to go. It is highly impractical to perform medical examinations in this way. Plus, I don't like the comparison to a common criminal." Even under arrest, she was audacious.

Yao walked over and unlocked the cuffs. "You're on thin ice, doctor. Understand that." Halsey rubbed her wrists, her eyes already lighting up.

Jacob walked out of the room and into the med bay, to find Rachel sitting on the edge of an examination table, unarmoured from the waist down, wearing only a tight bodysuit. She was pale and sweating, wincing every time Josef's armour brushed against her swollen knee; Halsey immediately walked over, activating the bed's panel. Josef and Sabina stepped back, and Athena's small avatar appeared before the doctor.

"I am Athena, ship-board AI of the UNSC _Hydra, _how may I assist you, Dr Halsey?" She chimed, clutching her stone tablet tightly, carrying a caduceus in the other hand.

Halsey blinked "Another 4th gen. I've been kept out of too many loops." She grabbed a tool from the surface next to her, and it glinted in the harsh medical lighting. "Athena, generate a sterile field and take detailed imaging of the left knee. And you…" She looked Josef up and down dismissively, her voice icy "Get the rest of her armour off."

Josef moved into action, popping release mechanisms in Rachel's battered MJOLNIR suit as the doctor worked. Soon, Rachel was clad in nothing but her bodysuit, and Halsey had identified the injury. As she treated the injured Spartan, Jake began releasing his armour, plate by plate, laying it neatly down onto a nearby surface, tossing the units beyond repair. The discarded units were replaced by brand new ones, taken from the three trollies of crates that Jacob had seen wheeled away from the dropship. Soon he and Sabina were devoid of MJOLNIR, and he felt oddly exposed without the comforting layers of ceramic and gel layers.

It was at this point that Rachel's patella was relocated with a sharp crack, accompanied by a moan of pain and then relief from the pale Spartan. Halsey nodded in satisfaction. "She's done. No serious damage apart from the knee and some minor burns." She turned to Josef "And now for the other III." She said, mouth twitching.

Josef detached the last of his armour and lay down on the bed, letting the omni-scanner hover above him. Halsey muttered to herself as the scan appeared on the screen "Lower bone density than I'd expected. Ackerson's cut a few corners has he? Athena, show me the sites of greatest osteological compromise, and play some music, Debussy's _Claire de Lune_ if you please." She set to work on Josef's injuries as the gentle melody emanated from the PA system.

Jacob tilted his head to look at her actions, a spasm of pain stabbing up his spine. Sabina sat next to him and he sighed, proceeding to quietly whisper to her, outlining recent developments. Her eyes widened slightly at the information and she frowned uncomfortably.

"Jay, why would Yao say that about the Spartan-II programme? About us? We were needed to defend Earth, and we did so, we helped save the human race from extinction, and this is how they repay us?"

"Because, Petty Officer..." Said Yao from just behind them, just loud enough so that everyone could hear"... the ends do not always justify the means."

Halsey shot Yao a glare, cheeks flushed, jaw clenched, before turning slowly back to her patient. Yao walked over to Jacob and Sabina, addressing the male Spartan in low tones.

"We need to brief the team. The fleet's moving; SENTINEL detected a detachment of covenant ships preparing to intercept us, everything but the Battle-Cruiser, one of the cruisers and a few escort ships is heading this way. ETA 30 minutes."

Jake nodded, looking up as Halsey finished her laparoscopic surgery on Josef. "Understood ma'am" Sabina walked over to be treated, and Josef joined Rachel in re-assembling his armour, swapping out damaged pieces for new ones, grimacing.

"We need to re-insert you." Yao muttered "We still don't know what technology is down there, and you're in the best position to infiltrate the ruins and find whatever it is they're looking for."

"Affirmative, we'll go for HEV insertion." Jake replied, watching Dr Halsey fusing Sabina's fractured clavicle back together with considerably more care and delicacy than she had exercised on the younger soldiers. Sabina was unconscious, knocked out by the powerful general anaesthetic that would normally keep a Marine still for 16 hours. She would wake up in 20 minutes.

Yao cleared her throat and moved towards the door, finger pressed to her earpiece. Jake felt the deck beneath him vibrate and felt acceleration tug at him: the _Hydra_ was gearing up for battle. Halsey looked up from her operation, waving over Jake with a wave of her hand.

"Jacob, the fractures have been repaired and she's stable and will be operational in 15 minutes. Somehow I feel like this room is going to be necessary sooner." She snipped the final stitch in Sabina's exposed shoulder and sealed it with bio-polymer. She lowered her voice "I might not get to say this again Jacob, but it's good to see you, alive." She laid a hand on his arm "I know you and Sabina aren't too happy about my incarceration, but no one can be allowed to get away with what I have done." She smiled sadly "I don't suppose you've heard anything about him?"

He shook his head slightly, internally in turmoil. "No, he's been gone for months, Doctor. There's always hope, especially for John, but even his luck has to run out someday." He sat up on the adjacent bed, tensing at the jolts of pain the action caused him. "My turn, doc."

She activated the bed and Athena popped up from the holo-pad next to his head. "Well, for a 40-year old man, you've kept in good shape, Spartan. I'm detecting a hairline fracture on the right scapula, and an avulsion fracture to the pelvis, I recommend local anaesthetic, doctor, as we are on a relatively tight schedule."

Halsey leaned over him and cut a small hole in his bodysuit on the side of his hip, rubbing a powerful numbing agent on the skin before making a small incision and inserting two probes into the flesh. Jake felt the metal tools move around, pushing aside enriched muscle fibres and ligaments, reaching the damaged bone. He gritted his teeth against the discomfort, breathing quickly.

"Ma'am, why weren't you on board with the Spartan-III project?" Jake asked through his deep breaths.

She paused, her glasses slipping down her nose a fraction. "I didn't know about the Spartan-IIIs until the fall of Reach. I encountered a fire team of Spartan-IIIs and Jorge during the defence of Sword Base." She stopped talking as she activated the fusing laser against his bone, and he gasped in pain, gripping the edges of the bed. "The threes were an administrator's solution to the problems of the Spartan-II project. The fact is, Jacob, that you and your armour are worth more than most cruisers, and the Spartan-IIIs are considerably more…" She tried to find the right words "… expendable. The reason that my follow up research was cancelled is that I couldn't find enough genetic candidates, not enough with the correct genotypes. The candidates for Ackerson's project are genetically inferior by my criteria, and the modifications used less durable ceramics." She paused for breath, withdrawing the bone-fuser from his hip and beginning to seal the incision. "They couldn't even use MJOLNIR until the last generation of Spartan IIIs and even then the suits aren't on the same scale as yours. And then there's the frontal lobe modifications." She finished sealing the wound, and stepped back from the table. "Turn over, please."

As he lay on his front, something that had been bothering him in the back of his mind was suddenly clarified "The anti-psychotics. They modified their neuro-chemistry…" He felt her slice open his bodysuit around his shoulder blade and apply the same powerful numbing agent.

"Yes, it gives them an edge in moments of duress, makes them more likely to survive, but as a result, their higher functions are inhibited, and they are more unstable. Hold still" She carried on her operation as she had for his hip.

Jake thought about his comrades, about how fluid and deadly they had fought during the assault on the last Tyrant gun. It made sense. They had been aided by their impaired frontal lobes, all of their energy focussed on survival.

She finished her work quickly, sealing the incision and injecting him with powerful painkillers "You're good to go."

Yao walked over from the corner, looking concerned, brow furrowed

"Chief, Doctor. The Captain wants us on the bridge. The covenant fleet is just about to crest the moon, and Admiral Marden is forming up to attack."

Jacob stood up quickly, rolling his shoulder back to test the movement. "Roger that, Spartans, fall out to the Pelican, grab the weapons, get extra from the armoury if necessary, and get ready for a HEV insertion to the surface." Sabina stood, now awake and clad in her matte-grey MJOLNIR. Rachel stood next to her, in her replacement Scout MJOLNIR, which was a dull grey with blue visor, and Josef stood last, clad in a mixture of his original blue EVA armour and the replacement grey components. They saluted and exited the room, pounding down the corridors towards the hangar.

Jake grabbed a standard slate-coloured Navy uniform from a locker and slid it on over his bodysuit, pulling on the boots quickly. Halsey closed down the medical instrumentation and walked over to the Vice Admiral, who escorted her out of the room. He followed them down narrow corridors, action stations klaxons blaring throughout the passages. They followed the signage to the bridge, and entered the spacious room, walking into a battleground.

**Hall**

As the ONI officer, the civilian doctor and the Spartan walked onto the bridge, Hall was reminded of a bad joke he'd once heard in a Sydney bar. He nodded greetings from his console, before turning his attention to the stream of information coming his way.

"Sir, MAC actuators are at full charge sir, all Archers online and 50mm auto-canons online."

"Captain, Primary fusion drive is running at 95% efficiency, engines giving 60% thrust forward."

"Admiral Marden sending firing solutions for the Battle-Group now sir."

He looked over the schematics and SENTINEL imagery of the enemy fleet. Two light cruisers, four destroyers and several smaller-tonnage hostiles. They approached the second moon slowly, their plasma lines cool and inactive for the moment. The continuously translated stream of Sanghelli communications streamed along the viewscreen, showing them their enemy's every move. When the lined-up Battle-Group sighted their adversaries, the _Hydra_ would target one of the destroyers, the _Jubilant Revelation_. The entire fleet was co-ordinated, and more than twenty MAC guns would fire a volley of hypersonic slugs through space at the alien crafts.

The two opposing forces powered towards each other, the _Babylon_ released her compliment of Broadsword interceptors, and the Frigates of the Battle group released their Broadswords and Longswords. The formations of fighters soared ahead of the fleet, on an intercept course with the swarm of Covenant Seraphs and Banshee fighters.

Athena chimed up "Time until line-of-sight is 2 minutes, sir."

"Lieutenant Harrison, fire Archer pods A1 through A6"

"Aye, sir, pods A1 through A6 firing now sir." replied Harrison

On the sides of the destroyer, ARCHER missile turrets rotated in their cradles and activated, sending seventy-two missiles streaking ahead of the vessel, using the moon's gravitational pull to give them a burst of additional speed. Hall watched as other ships did the same, and saw hundreds of vapour trails accelerate towards the moon's horizon.

Athena spoke calmly amid the tension on the bridge. "Line-of-sight establishment in 1 minute sir. SENTINEL systems have identified approximately 50 high-energy plasma projectiles on an intercept curse, sir."

"Winters, prepare for evasive manoeuvres."

"Aye sir, engines running at 100% capacity."

Hall looked out of the main view screen, and saw the Covenant fleet crest the horizon. The two menacing, bulbous cruisers lead the pack, four destroyers fanned out on either side, their point-defence lasers powering up, and their plasma weapons cycling. He also spotted the barrage of plasma torpedoes heading straight for them, now 10,000 km distant, glowing an angry blue.

"Fire MAC, staggered shot!" He commanded, and Harrison keyed the fire mechanism.

The entire ship thundered and shuddered as the two main MAC canons discharged gigajoules of energy into two 600 tonne ferrous projectiles, accelerating them to 5% the speed of light within 0.5 seconds, sending them hurtling towards the _Jubilant Revelation_. A few seconds later, the thunderous roaring of the MAC canons sounded again as a second barrage of MAC slugs was fired. The last volley of fire rocked the ship just after the second, and the rest of the battle-group followed suit. Frigates rocked and bucked as they belched projectiles; the other destroyers and the mammoth _Babylon_ thundered away, loosing a dozen rounds at the enemy formation.

There was no sound for 10 seconds, and then the Archer Missiles, with their gravity-assisted speed boost, met their targets. Some were neutralised by pin-point accurate laser weapons, but the majority of the High Explosive warheads found their mark. All around the curved alien ships, blossoms of fire developed as the charges detonated; the enemy shields shimmered, fire rolling off of their silvery light. The corvettes' and frigates' shields were completely drained under the onslaught, flickering out of existence, the metal of their hulls caving in and collapsing, leaking atmosphere.

Then, the interceptor fighters met in between the two fleets, bright blue plasma fire, the yellow flashes of the UNSC fighters' canons and the vapour trails of UNSC missiles filled the space between the advancing lines of ships.

Hall turned his attention to the incoming plasma fire. "Change heading, 045 degrees starboard, 25 degrees lateral, full burn!" He barked, and the destroyer darted out of the way of the advancing plasma, the torpedoes coming close enough to the hull to melt the port comm arrays.

The plasma bolts curved around in space, looping back around towards the _Hydra_, chasing after her, gaining ground.

"Deploy countermeasures" Hall ordered, and the destroyer was suddenly ablaze with burning flares ejected from every surface. The plasma torpedoes exploded inside the chaff, scorching the engines coverings.

"Engines hit, sir, evacuating breached lines, re-routing coolant." Said Winters, furiously tapping at his console.

"The _Redeemer's _been hit sir; hull integrity lost" informed Athena, as the heavy frigate above them was lost to coiling blue plasma. Hall spotted several lifeboats escaping the doomed ship.

"Athena, track those Bumblebees and transmit co-ordinates to the _Nightingale_." Hall said

"Aye sir, MAC impact in 5 seconds" She replied, her calm tones at juxtaposition with the chaos of battle.

"Sir, the enemy frigate, _Righteous __Monarch,_ is hit - her reactor's going critical" voiced 2nd Lieutenant Mallard

On the viewscreen, a small speck flashed bright white, and expanded, consuming a trio of corvettes in its overloading reactors blast, leaving only twisted metal in its wake.

As the frigate exploded, the barrage of MAC rounds struck the fleet. Their target, the _Jubilant Revelation, _rocked under the assault, its shields flaring as the first two MAC rounds flattened themselves on the energy wall, the huge kinetic energy knocking the destroyer out of line, causing it to spin wildly and crush a nearby corvette, which detonated against the shields, making them flicker. The second round of MAC slugs hit their diminished shield, which died and faded. The doomed destroyer had enough time to fire off a volley of plasma before the final volley gutted her, one slug ripping clean through her midsection, eliminating the control centre, the other burying itself into her rear section, crushing the hull and tearing through the engines. The _Jubilant Revelation_, venting all of its atmosphere, span out of control, spiralling downwards to the moon below, shedding layers of composite hull and deck sections.

All across the enemy fleet, ships were engulfed in flames, punctured by the immense magnetically accelerated projectiles. As the single ships of the covenant fleet approached them, the _Hydra_'s point defence 50mm canons activated, enveloping the small fighters in overlapping fields of fire before they could do any damage.

"Sir," vocalised the Smart AI "The _Divergence_ is hit, hull integrity is at 10%, Captain Steer has ordered to abandon ship, co-ordinating lifeboat retrieval now, sir." As she voiced her actions, the _Infamous-_class destroyer broke apart, cleaved in two by concentrated fire from the two cruisers, its halves spinning away into space, the fore section swatting the UNSC corvette _Julius_ from orbit, batting it away.

"Bring us around, get me a targeting solution for those cruisers" Hall ordered. All of the enemy destroyers were damaged, but those cruisers were blasting their smaller vessels from space.

"Aye sir, solution posited" Series of calculations scrolled across the viewscreen rapidly.

"Fire, Athena." Ordered Hall, before turning to Harrison "Lieutenant, nuclear safe code override is authorised, designation OH-278-D-8."

"Aye sir, FENRIS, HAVOKs and SHIVAs armed and ready sir." The man replied, perspiring visibly.

"Staggered firing, two rounds of MAC, time it so that a SHIVA detonates just as their shields fail" he said.

"Aye sir, SHIVA away." Athena toned, and a single jet of vapour soared away from the destroyer.

"Fire Archer pods B1 through B10 at corvette and frigate escort"

"Archers away."

The lone vapour trail was joined by dozens more as the archer missiles streaked away. Hall saw other volleys from the _Babylon_ and other ships in the battle-group soar towards their targets, and three more frigates disappeared behind the expanding balls of fire.

"MAC away, sir." Came Harrison's voice, and the thunderous racket rocked through the decks.

"Incoming plasma fire, sir, from the cruiser _Majestic Deity_! Engaging evasive manoeuvres." Cried Winters, sending the ship into a gently roll, presenting a small target area.

"Brace, brace, brace!" shouted Hall, as the last volley of plasma from the downed destroyer combined with fresh fire from the cruiser and splashed across the starboard hull, melting through the armour plating and causing explosive decompression in multiple sectors. The force threw the ship sharply in the opposite direction.

"Decompression in sectors 7-D, C and F, sealing bulkheads" said Athena. "MAC impact in 5."

The massive barrage from the fleet battered the two cruisers, draining their shields rapidly, as the wall of Archer missiles ploughed into the corvette and frigate escorts, decimating their numbers.

Fresh plasma fire from the remaining destroyers burned away the hull and superstructure of the UNSC frigate _Injustice;_ in an act of desperation, she suddenly accelerated, engines glowing white in the darkness as she hurtled towards the covenant lines, trailing flame and burning vented atmosphere in her wake. She crashed into a destroyer, crumpling her forward bows like paper. One single lifeboat ejected from her port side, before her fusion drive detonated, consuming half of the bulbous alien craft in an enormous explosion.

The battlefield had just darkened from the blast, when the SHIVA from the _Hydra_, along with two FENRIS warheads from the _Babylon_ and three other SHIVAS from other ships, detonated as one, engulfing the remains of the covenant task-force in brilliant white orbs, which blinded the bridge crew temporarily, despite the maximum tint of the main view-screen, before fading to reveal nothing but broken hulls and shattered husks drifting in the abyss.

Hall looked on the tactical screen at the debris around them; chunks of titanium armour plating, scorched and blackened, joined by half-melted parts of covenant hull, the strange purple metal pitted and cratered. The entire covenant fleet, save for the ships still on the surface, had been annihilated, but they were not without their losses: one destroyer lost, another badly damaged, and the _Hydra_ was red-lining their reactors; five corvettes and four frigates had fallen and the remainder were in need of immediate repair. Miraculously, the _Babylon_ had escaped with only minimal damage sustained to her port bows.

The search for survivors began. They painstakingly tracked down and retrieved every stranded lifeboat. In the eyes of the men they rescued, Hall saw what he had expected: fear, despair, anguish, pain, everything which would eventually be the downfall of them. Despite this, Hall saw in the eyes of every single man and woman on his ship something much, much more powerful. The one idea, that no amount of glassing could ever drive out from humanity...

That idea was hope.


	7. Chapter 7: Re-entry

_There are too many dead_ thought Captain Hall, eying up the casualty reports from the battle over Sigmus IV; Battle-Group Zulu had engaged a small covenant fleet, and had come out victorious. Every ship that had risen to meet them as they slip-space jumped in system had been neutralised, and yet Hall found it hard to feel like they'd won. They had lost a good third of their Battle-Group, and there was still a CCS-class battlecruiser, two cruisers, a destroyer and several escort ships on the surface of the planet, not to mention the fact that every surviving UNSC ship had been damaged. The _Hydra_ had sustained major damage to the reactor coolant system, and was currently operating on emergency systems, which only allowed the engines to give 50% of their usual thrust.

Admiral Marden had ordered them to hold position orbiting the second moon of Sigmus IV, and to search the cloud of debris for survivors. So far, the _Hydra_ had found and rescued the crews of 4 Bumblebee life-boats, a mix of survivors from various ships, ranging from the corvette _Hound_ to the destroyer _Divergence_. They had found plenty of other lifeboats; ones that had been hit by stray plasma fire and decompressed causing the lingering demise of all the crew inside, or ones that had been sliced in half by Covenant laser defences. Sometimes they just found the half-melted black boxes of the lifeboats and a small cloud of ionised metal.

Hall looked around from the view-screen, nodding at the black-clothed ONI officer, the civilian doctor, who was looking around the tactical-screens with intense interest and the towering Spartan. Jesus they were tall. He'd heard plenty of rumours about the Spartans, and they all stated that the Special Forces members were monolithic, but he'd never met one before. Jacob-209, even without the trademark MJOLNIR armour system, loomed over the rest of the bridge crew, easily six feet tall. And there was something about the eyes of a Spartan that Hall would never forget, the trained lack of emotion, the way in which he seemed to look right through him, whilst being absolutely attentive at the same time. It was slightly unsettling.

"Sir, casualty list completed, 24 KIA in sector 7, with a further 39 wounded from across the ship." Spoke the ship's AI, her avatar's orange glow noticeably dimmer than before, reflecting the sombre mood on deck.

"Thank you, Athena. Winters, what's the engines' status?"

Lieutenant Winters looked up from the console, haggard and exhausted. "Main coolant line's fried sir, engineers are working on a solution, but we're stuck on the reserve system until they fix the damage"

He nodded "Then we'll make do. Vice Admiral? What's our next move?"

"My team needs to re-insert to the surface, Captain. We still don't know what the Covenant is looking for under the crater, and with our expert's assistance, we may yet find out." She cleared her throat quietly "We can't risk the Forerunner structures being damaged, so for now, I'm not authorising the use of Orbital MAC rounds to destroy the remnants of the Covenant fleet. I've informed Admiral Marden of the situation."

"Understood, ma'am." Hall confirmed, scratching his neck. "How do you intend to insert, Chief Petty Officer?"

**Jacob**

"Sir, me and my team will insert via HEVs to the planet's surface, approximately 10 kilometres east of the dig sites. If you'd be willing to oblige, the _Hydra_ could provide a distraction, some high explosives in the opposite direction should suffice. From there we'll infiltrate the enemy encampments and into their excavation, gathering data through intercepted voice traffic as we go. We'll find and retrieve any and all Forerunner assets and exfiltrate, potentially commandeering enemy transport."

The Captain stared at him for a few seconds disbelievingly, before straightening himself up and nodding. "I'll prepare the SOEVs now, and I'm sure we can rustle up a few pretty fireworks to keep those hinge-heads occupied. The Battle-Group will establish a polar orbit soon, you'd better get ready, Spartan." Hall moved towards the tall soldier, extending his hand for shaking.

Jacob smiled slightly, and shook the Captain's hand firmly before saluting. The Captain blinked before saluting back, nodding to Yao as the trio left the bridge and headed to the hangar. Halsey broke the silence as they marched.

"Admiral, what exactly is my role in this?" She asked, exasperation edging into her voice.

Yao didn't look at her as she replied "You are to be accompanied back to the _Antoinette_, where you will provide intelligence support to Spartan-209 and his team."

Halsey flicked a strand of grey hair out of her eyes "So I'm the babysitter, how exhilarating." Her tone conveyed sarcasm, but Jake had grown up with the doctor; her quickened pace and slightly dilated pupils told him all he needed to know about her disposition towards this particular assignment.

They approached the hangar, passing dozens of junctions and not seeing a single living soul. Jake wondered if their path to the hangar was begin cleared deliberately, or if everyone was at battle stations. The answer came from a small holographic projector next to the door to the hangar; Athena's small form flickered into being, and she panted slightly.

"Do you know how difficult it is having ONI on this ship? I've had to re-route at least 54 crew members and lord knows how many service robots because of you. I hope it was worth it." She crossed her arms, tapping one holographic foot.

Yao stopped, tilting her head slightly at the AI. "You're Athena? ATH-2401-7?"

"Yes ma'am"

Yao tapped her datapad a few times, smiling "Been on the _Hydra _for 3 months, exemplary record." She considered something for a few seconds "Don't get comfortable."

With that, the Admiral keyed open the hangar door, and the three of them entered the hangar once more. Josef, Sabina and Rachel were busy stripping the battered Pelican of all usable equipment and strapping it to their armour. The three armoured soldiers snapped to attention once they spotted Yao, and stood at ease when she reciprocated. Dr Halsey nodded at Sabina from beside Jake, refusing to acknowledge the others; Jake rolled his eyes internally.

"Ma'am, sir." Said Rachel, slipping her M6D onto her thigh holster. "We've salvaged all the weapons from the drop-ship, and sir, your armour is loaded up into the Assembly, ready to proceed. Oh, and this is for you, ma'am" She handed over a small data chip. "This has every recorded covenant comm we intercepted."

Yao took the small silicone square and nodded thanks. "Appreciated, Petty Officer. We'd best be going now" She looked pointedly at Halsey "I'll let the CPO brief you. Come on, Doctor, you have some babysitting to do" She turned around and headed slowly for the black ONI shuttle, answering a call on her communicator in hushed tones.

Seizing the moment of privacy, Halsey turned her back on the Admiral and whispered to Jake, looking up at him. "Jacob, do not put your faith in these toy soldiers, they aren't stable in more than one way. Had you and I met a month ago, you'd have seen some of their handiwork; one of them had a psychotic episode and assaulted me. They are a cheap knock off of you, they are not Spartans."

Jake blinked rapidly, not replying. He wasn't sure he knew how.

Halsey cleared her throat, speaking at normal volume. "Good hunting Spartans, and good luck" She patted one of Sabina's forearms gently, before turning and following the Admiral, who had halted at the foot of the dropship's ramp, waiting. Jacob shared one more meaningful look with the Doctor before she was marched onto the shuttle, which promptly powered up its engines and glided out of the hangar into the blackness of space.

Jacob was now suddenly aware that the others were all in armour, and he felt naked wearing only Navy scrubs. He cleared his throat "Spartans, we are to re-insert to Sigmus IV and infiltrate the Forerunner ruins, the covenant seek whatever's down there, so we're here to find it first. The _Hydra_ will provide a distraction so that we can re-enter via HEV pods, and mission intel will provided by Dr Halsey on board the _Antoinette_." He looked around at the assembled warriors, seeing only their reflective visors. The sooner he got back into armour, the better. "Questions?"

They shook their heads.

"Good, then head to the fore launch bay, I'll suit up and meet you there in 20." He nodded at them and they jogged over to the door, their heavy footfalls echoing around the hard surfaces.

He emerged from the back of the dropshp 20 minutes later, encased in olive green MJOLNIR Mark VI, rolling his joints to feel for any restricted movement caused by the new parts, he found no issues, and his shield strength had increased thanks to the new phase generators in his torso.

Smiling, he made his way through the ship, noticing on his HUD how the corridors ahead of him emptied of personnel as he approached, and how the sections behind him filled up again as he exited them. Biblical imagery aside, the lofty Spartan entered the launch bay; along the wall to his left ran a row of open HEV pods, and on his right were his team. Rachel sat on a table, polishing her Battle Rifle, Sabina stood in front of a weapon rack, evidently trying to decide between an M45D Tactical Shotgun and an M90 CAWS, and Josef was leaned up against one of the dividers between two pods, facing dead ahead, but likely checking the latest FLEET-TAC information inside his domed EVA helmet.

As the door closed behind him, Rachel looked up and nodded welcome, jumping down from her perch with a heavy sound of metal on metal. Sabina shrugged and selected the more familiar M90 Shotgun, ratcheting the pump action back and loading the gun. Josef pushed himself away from the wall, grabbing his M392 Designated Marksman Rifle from where it was leant against the pod.

Jake grabbed an MA5D from the weapon rack, slotting it into the weapon holder in the first HEV pod. The others did likewise, stowing their weapons in their respective pods and the air was filled with mechanical noises as rounds were cycled and bolts drawn back, a last-minute check of all the team's weaponry. As they finished prepping their pods, Captain Hall's voice came over the PA system in the launch bay.

"Spartans, co-ordinates set, HEV launch in 5 mikes, we'll unleash a few pretty lights just ahead of your departure, good hunting, Hall out." The Tactical map of the crater appeared on their HUDs, highlighting the Drop Zone which was just inside the eastern rim of the crater. Accompanying this, a mission chronometer appeared in the centre of the display, counting down from five minutes.

Josef and Rachel stepped into their pods and sealed the doors; Jacob checked their bio readings, both were sweating and breathing quickly, and then he remembered that this was their first live-fire orbital jump, no wonder they were clamming up, sticking to their procedure. Sabina showed no such worries, checking over her own pod visually. He walked over to her and opened up a private communication line.

"Sab, Dr Halsey told me not to trust the IIIs. She said they weren't real Spartans, and that one of them assaulted her. I don't know what or who to believe any more. They've done nothing but excellent work, but if what I think is true actually is, they could be a huge problem." He shook his head, trying to clear the tumultuous storm of conflicting loyalties and thoughts that bubbled around his mind.

She looked at him for a minute before answering "Jay, I don't know what's right and wrong in this world. Are we wrong? 'Morally reprehensible' Admiral Yao called us, just think about that; reprehensible. She thinks that the outcomes of the Spartan-II Project were not enough to warrant the ethical and moral qualms. I think she is wrong. We did, and still do, make the difference in this war." She traced the outline of the green stripes on her thigh armour absent-mindedly. "Sometimes, the ends do justify the means. The same with the others. We can sit and argue about superior muscle density and frontal lobe modifications, but at the end of the day, those two are two of the finest soldiers I've ever met, and this is only their first Op." A long pause filled the air "Anyway, we've got 3 mikes until drop, let's get in the coffins."

Jake nodded slowly, no less divided, but at least he could focus on one thing; the mission. He could worry about ethics and morality later, for now all that mattered was completing his objective and getting his team out alive. "Thanks Sab. Let's get ready to drop." He stowed an M392 into the secondary weapon holster in his pod before checking the status lights on the others' HEVs. All green.

The pod door closed in front of him as he sat down onto the seat, securing his harness quickly. The screens came to life in front of him, displaying the planetary system's detailed tactical map on one side, and Hall's voice came over the comms, clear and calm.

"Spartans, we've started the fireworks display, MAC rounds and ANVIL-VIIs are targeting the strike zone now, good luck, drop in 1 mike, Hall out." The muffled booming sound of the primary MAC guns firing shuddered through the small pods, and on the tactical screen, Jake saw a flurry of silver missile icons sprout from the _Hydra_ and shoot towards the surface.

As the seconds ticked by, the drop sequence began, and a magnetic grapple slammed into the roof of his pod, and the entire frame swivelled round so that his viewscreen faced a solid partition, and the faint lights from inside threw beams against the wall. The air around the pod was suddenly expelled into space, and Jake felt his inner ear pop before the pressure in the pod equalised. Jake heard his heart pounding in his ears, and felt the buzz of adrenaline coursing through his veins. 15 seconds.

"See you all planet-side, keep your course, and wait until the last minute to pop the rockets. Good luck." He said over TEAMCOM, and received three green acknowledgment lights in the corner of his HUD.

A sudden, jerking acceleration forced him up against his harness, and he clenched his jaw against the jolts of pain emanating from his newly fused bones. He knocked his head against the roof of the pod and swore loudly through clenched teeth as he was propelled out of the fore section of the UNSC destroyer, which fell far behind as he and the other three Spartans shot downwards. As the ride momentarily settled he checked the status of the others, his breath loud and heavy in his ears, everything was going as planned.

He glanced out of the viewscreen, marvelling at the blue/green curvature of Sigmus IV as he rapidly approached the outer atmosphere. He snapped a quick photograph of the beautiful view before returning his attention to his re-entry procedures; as he plummeted towards the centre of the planet, his small alloy-composite pod started ploughing through the atmosphere, causing incredible frictional forces that cooked the tiny vessel.

Flames licked up along the viewscreen, and the internal temperature rose significantly, and the deceleration pulled him into his seat roughly as he broke through the upper stratosphere. He spotted three black specks below him, trailing vapour, and far below them was the crater.

The dome shaped depression looked emptier than he remembered, only a few sleek purple covenant ships were left, and those that did remain were clustered around the very centre of the horse-shoe, glinting in the late evening light. Then, far off to the left of the formation, a series of powerful explosions threw up dust and dirt high into the air, attracting the attention of the swarm of single fighters surrounding the covenant fleet. He whistled softly, keying the TEAMCOM channel.

"There go the _Hydra'_s distractions, make course adjustments and initiate final burn." He ordered, and a trio of confirmation lights responded. The four of them changed their vector slightly and the rockets affixed to the top of the pods fired, boosting them downwards to avoid anti-air fire. They rushed to the ground towards their DZ, a small area on the inner edge of the crater's rim. From the look of the covenant air patrols, they had gone unnoticed, and they were now entering the last and most brutal stage of their infiltration. Jake made sure that his jaw was relaxed so as to reduce dental damage, and relaxed his legs.

As they reached 100m altitude, retro-rockets activated in the base of the pod and a four-pronged airbrake deployed from the roof, rapidly slowing the HEV. His entire body was compressed in his suit and he almost blacked out as the blood in his body was forced into his feet. Then he hit the ground. Hard. He slammed into a tree, turning a tall oak-like specimen into matchsticks in an instant, and his pod buried itself into the soft earth, leaving a 3 metre wide impact crater in the dense forest floor.

Jake shook his head, clearing the black flashes from his vision as the pod's door automatically ejected from in front of him. He stepped out of the HEV, swinging his MA5D around swiftly, checking for hostiles. Finding none, he retrieved his secondary and snapped it onto his back, proceeding to hail the others on TEAMCOM.

"Squad, form up on me on the double." He ordered, moving away from his DZ further towards the covenant fleet. As he moved stealthily through the foliage, the other Spartans joined him, appearing as if from nowhere, forming up behind him in a V formation. Jake noticed that Josef seemed to be limping somewhat, probably as a consequence of the drop, and that Rachel's heart rate was elevated. Their first Low-Orbit jump. As soon as they were far enough away from the DZ, Jake held up a closed fist and turned to face the group, depolarising his visor.

"Alright, the nearest Covenant dig site is 7.8 kilometres west, SENTINEL imagery shows a large fortification built around the excavation, we may need to improvise." He cycled the charging handle on his DMR and looked around at them.

They responded with acknowledgement lights, and they set off as one, silently and swiftly moving through the dense woodland for hours, over rock formations and through shallow streams. The topography sloped downhill slightly towards the centre of the crater, and they moved down the gradient towards the growing sounds of impulse drives and generators; the sound of the covenant hardware was barely audible over the background of mammalian calls and insect noises. Sigmus IV was alive with Earth-like animal and plant species, the main reason for its desirability as a colony. The four Spartans, crouching low to the ground, approached the large alien camp, and Jacob lead them up a mound in the land which gave them overwatch on the entire operation.

Jake signalled for the two younger Spartans to stay at the foot of the hill and keep watch, and as the two Petty Officers took up defensive positions him and Sabina crawled up to the peak of the hill, looking over the camp; the base was located in a flat valley bordered by three shallow hills. Pre-fabricated defences had been erected in a circular arrangement with tall guard towers spaced along the outer wall, which was roughly 800 metres in diameter, the command centre of the base was in the centre of the base, with other purple buildings radiating outwards. Jake spotted multiple barracks, an armoury, a vehicle hangar and what looked like a communications outpost. The only aberration to the standard Covenant layout was the walled-off area just next to the command centre, in which a deep chasm opened up in the ground, into which materials and workers were flowing. The whole base hummed with activity, Grunts and Elites running back and forth between buildings; evidently the covenant fleet's defeat in orbit had had an effect.

Jake ran his eyes over the compound, and Sabina nudged his arm, pointing at one of the barrack buildings closest to their vantage point. He zoomed in on the small outbuilding, and saw a Grunt approach the airlock and enter it, taking off the bulky methane tanks that allowed the short aliens to breathe. He deduced that the barracks must be exclusive for Unggoy and afforded them a self-contained bubble of methane gas. He smiled inside his helmet, nodded, nudged Sabina and crawled back from the summit.

Rachel and Josef met them at the base of the rise, and Jake motioned for them to take a knee. "Listen up, the base looks pretty well defended, plasma turrets and sniper fire from guard towers, and they'll doubtless have motion detectors around the perimeter. We need a distraction. There's a methane environment tent filled with Unggoy just beyond the wall, we detonate and infiltrate in the confusion, aided by our jamming signal." He nodded at Josef "Josef, get up on the hill and sight the exhaust port on the nearest barracks with your SRS-S5. Once you've taken the shot, we'll all insert into the base and into the excavation site. Stealth is preferred."

Josef grunted and moved up the hill and out of sight. The others moved around the slope and settled into the undergrowth, melting into the shadows. Their sniper sent a green light, and Sabina activated the jamming signal in each of their armour systems, cutting the alien base off from the rest of the command system. Jake flashed a green light, and a sharp crack of Josef's SRS firing rent through the air, immediately followed by a high-pitched explosion as the methane atmosphere inside the barracks ignited, engulfing the surrounding area in an immense fireball, which lit up the night's sky a bright orange, casting long shadows around it. The shock wave of the detonation demolished a section of the outer wall; Jacob sent another green light to the team, and they all sprang forwards, Josef sprinted down the hill and joining the others running from the bushes as they pelted towards the smouldering gap in the wall.

Josef reached the wall first, hurdling over the remnants of the boundary, placing a well-aimed kick in between the eyes of a dazed Jackal. Rachel and Sabina were next to enter the compound, keeping close to the wall of the next building as they made their way towards the excavation site. Jacob followed them, tapping Josef's shoulder to get him moving, and together the two of them crept through the base, sticking to shadows cast by organically curved structures. Alarm klaxons roared throughout the base, and aliens rushed towards the site of the blast, many of them clutching small pink canisters that Jake assumed must be fire extinguishers. Come to think of it, UNSC intelligence of the inner workings of Covenant bases was remarkably sparse, so he made sure to snap as many images as he could of the buildings and aliens as they snuck around buildings and across paths, often having to go prone to avoid detection from passing Elite warriors as they barked instructions to Grunts from their four-way jaws.

According to his HUD, Rachel and Sabina were approaching the dig site from a different angle, meandering between rows of tents. Jake checked a pathway for hostiles and darted across it, spotting a lone Sanghelli coming into view from within a sleeping quarters and heading their way. He turned back to Josef from across the pathway, dropping to the ground. Josef was too exposed; from the way the path was angled towards the explosion site, orange light was illuminating his armour. The Elite would likely see the glinting plates, their only chance was if Josef stayed absolutely still. Jake dared not move a muscle as the loping footsteps of the Sanghelli drew closer, from his low vantage point, Jake saw a cloven armoured foot stamp down on the ground in front of him, followed by the other. The towering alien stopped in his tracks, sniffing the air, and began to walk away from their position. Jake felt his heart pounding in his chest and breathed a sigh of relief as he moved on.

Josef threw himself bodily from the shadows, colliding with the warrior and bringing him down next to the Spartan-II; the Sanghelli barked in surprise and rage, caught off guard with his body-shields down, spitting out guttural phrases at his assailant as he fought to free himself. Jake saw a glint of metal and as the Spartan-III straddled the hostile, he plunged his blade into the alien's chest, sending blood spraying into the air. The creature's howls of agony were still fresh in the air when the young soldier wrenched his knife out of his target and thrust it into the exposed flesh in the neck, pressing his armoured forearm into the Elite's windpipe, crushing his trachea. The alien died quickly, eyes bulging in his long skull, limbs spasming.

Jacob grabbed the younger soldier's arm, dragging him away from the path into the gap between two shelters. He stood above him, fuming internally, furious that the younger Spartan had potentially blown their cover just for one Elite.

"Petty Officer, care to explain?" He growled

Josef stared up into his CO's faceplate. "Sir, I eliminated a threat." He replied, a hint of aggression in his voice.

Jacob clenched his fists "You could have blown our entire operation already, Petty Officer, you took a needless risk to satisfy your own bloodlust, one which you will not take again, do I make myself understood?" He emphasised the 'not' in his command.

Josef stood his ground "Yes sir." He muttered acidly, shouldering his DMR.

Jake shook his head slightly and readied his MA5D, before turning towards their goal, signalling to his unpredictable comrade. Maybe Halsey was right about them after all.

**Hall**

"Mallard, what are our orders from Admiral Marden?" Asked Hall, looking out upon the light side of Sigmus IV from the bridge.

The Lieutenant unhooked her earpiece, looking exhausted "Sir, We are to hold position in low equatorial orbit until either ONI allows a direct strike or until we are fired upon." She added "Admiral Marden didn't seem too happy either Captain."

Hall grunted "Typical ONI. Where is the rest of the Battle-Group?" Once they had deposited the Spartan team onto the planet, the fleet had been divided into two forces, theirs, consisting of the _Hydra, _their sister-ship the UNSC _Chimera,_ the frigates _Phoenix, Riptide, Underdog _and _Immortal Bard, _and numerous corvette-class vessels. The hospital ship _Nightingale _hung behind the warships, and above them all was the ONI prowler _Marie Antoinette. _The other taskforce, consisting of the cruiser _Babylon, _destroyer UNSC _Relentless _and the rest of the frigate and corvette class vessels, had moved away from the planet's surface in order to lay a minefield around the planet with narrow exit points at the poles. Hall watched them on the TACMAP as they deployed thousands of nuclear MORAY mines, embargoing the planet from covenant craft.

Athena materialised on her pedestal, writing on her tablet "Captain, Vice Admiral Yao is requesting a direct communication, shall I patch her through to your quarters?"

Hall nodded, his voice full of apprehension "Thank you, Athena. Winters, update me on the engines' status as soon as I'm free." He walked out of the bridge into the hallway, ducking into his day cabin and closing the door. He straightened his uniform and accepted the Admiral's call.

Her face appeared on the display on his wall, looking drained and tired. "Captain, I've informed Captain Akintola aboard the _Chimera_, but you are the one who probably knows the most about this operation. Short story is, the Covenant really want something on the planet, and I'm afraid that the fleet we eliminated yesterday was just the welcoming party." She rubbed her forehead, sighing. "ONI tracking stations surrounding the Daedalus star system detected Slip-Space signatures of a similar-sized Covenant taskforce bypassing them on their way here. Estimated Time of Arrival 20 hours, although with Covenant drives, that could be less than 12."

Hall slumped in his chair, rubbing his eyes. "Another engagement. Out of the frying pan." He straightened his back, coughing "Understood ma'am, we'll be ship-shape for the big show." He looked at the Vice Admiral's image, and saw genuine fear in her eyes for the first time.

She nodded "Appreciated. Admiral Marden will complete his defences around Sigmus IV and then relocate to the second moon. We can at least get the drop on the hinge-heads." She hesitated "Captain, I hope you understand the situation. At the end of the day, if the covenant force overruns us, we will withdraw from Sigmus IV, with or without our ground team."

Hall blinked a few times, remembering the stoic images of UNSC propaganda and his own memories of the serious, pale face of Spartan-209. "Understood ma'am. But we're not going to make it easy for them."


	8. Chapter 8: Excavation

Chapter 8: Excavation

The distinct intrusion alarm cutting through the night air was the first sign of trouble. Jacob sprinted along the side of a curved hut, checking his motion detector; nothing was heading their way, but it wouldn't be long before the alien horde organised themselves and scoured the base for the intruders. Their only chance to evade immediate detection was to get into the deep round chasm towards the centre of the firebase without being spotted. He peeked around the corner of the building and upon seeing nothing but domed metal buildings glinting in the moon and fire-light, he dashed across the path, the younger Spartan close on his heels as they both kept low, just in case an attentive sniper in one of the guard towers dotted around the outer wall located them.

They were close now, barely 30 metres from the edge of the tunnel, converging on the green contacts on their tactical maps that denoted the other half of their team, Sabina-211 and Rachel-G023. The two male soldiers rushed in between rows of prefabricated buildings, coming to a low rocky rise just before the sheer 40 metre drop into the hole; they both crouched in the shadows of the nearest building, waiting for the others. The others came within range of their motion trackers, and Jake spotted the two Spartans emerging from the shadows towards them, weapons raised and scanning.

Jacob and Josef emerged from their hiding place, nodding welcome to the others, and Jake approached the edge of the precipice, looking around the circumference for the access points; he spotted a two-metre wide tube of purple metal and transparent composite running up the opposite wall, emanating the tell-tale blue glow of a gravity lift. That would be a speedy exit, but the entrance and exit of the lift were too exposed for his liking. He signalled using his hands to the others, and they quickly began assembling a ground anchoring system, covering the metal peg with dirt and leaf litter. As they worked to secure four high-tension cabling to the anchor, Jake felt that something was wrong, something was missing… Then he realised that their mission intelligence contact, Dr Catherine Halsey aboard the ONI prowler _Marie Antoinete_, had not spoken a word to them up until this point.

He checked his communications system, on problems there, so then he ran diagnostics on the SENTINEL network of relay/imaging satellites in orbit around the planet, and found their processing power had been maxed out by the vast amount of Covenant voice traffic it had compiled and stored. He set them to stream information directly to the _Antoinette_'s data centre, and immediately a rather irritated Catherine Halsey spoke into his ear.

"Jacob, at last, those SENTINEL satellites have been giving us all a headache, apparently they were never registered on the mainframe. Even ONI's extensive Bureaucracy has its downsides" She sounded amused "Have you made your way into the ruins yet?"

"Not yet ma'am, preparing to rappel into the excavation site now, looks like they used a ship-based energy weapon to break dirt. We don't have a lot of time until they notice us, so I'll have to call you back ma'am." He noticed that the others were already hooked up onto the cables, awaiting his order. He walked over to them and took his place, attaching a cable to the hip of his armour, lining up on the edge of the curved cliff face. As he looked around at the others, he received three green status lights, and as one they jumped backwards over the edge, spooling out cable in front of them as they fell, bending their knees as they hit the cliff face dislodging small rocks from their places. The lines held, and slowly but surely the four Spartans slid down the side of the chasm, until they hung 3 metres above the end of the wall.

Jacob spotted three motion sensor contacts approaching them from in front of them and underneath them, and he twisted his head round to see three waddling Unggoy appear directly below them from a wide cave formation directly under them. They all froze in their positions until the aliens walked along the bottom of the chasm and into the gravity lift, at which point the armoured warriors lowered themselves from the lip of the overhang to the floor, unhooking themselves and shouldering their respective weapons quickly. Glowing covenant beacons lit the way ahead, down a gently sloping cave with a thin layer of mossy vegetation growing on the floor.

"Rachel, set up a comm relay at the cave entrance, we don't want to be in the dark on this." Jake said, and she reached around to her waist, retrieving a small metal box. She walked over to a large rock and set the box down in its shadow, extending an almost invisible aerial and typing in the frequency of their secure channel. The status light for the relay on their HUD glowed green, and they slowly moved down the sloping floor, weapons raised, crouched low to the ground.

They passed underneath the thick shelf of rock, spread out across the width of the passage, stepping around rocks, weaving between the stalagmites and stalactites that stretched up from the floor and down from the ceiling. Jake hung behind his advancing team and quickly set up a LOTUS proximity mine; if their operation was detected, the 3.5 kilos of High Explosive should buy them some time, and give them ample warning. After securing the mine in its concealed position at the mouth of the tunnel, he stood up and turned down the slope, following his team.

He caught up with them about 30 metres down the tunnel, the only light coming from the pale purple covenant beacons leading into the depths.

"Spartans, I've been doing some analysis of covenant communications about the excavation, you should be approaching the entrance to a Forerunner ruin 30 metres further into the tunnel, recessed into the left hand wall" Came Dr Halsey's clear voice in their ears, accompanied by a small icon labelled with her name appearing in the periphery of their HUDs.

"Understood." Replied Jake, retrieving and affixing a custom suppressor to the end of his MA5D. The door came into view, glowing a ghostly blue, made of smooth grey stone and pulsing with symbols and lights. Around the doorway were obvious signs of attempted entry, broken plasma cutters littered the area, and several scorch marks were evident on the door itself.

The others stacked up on either side of the frame, shoulders pressed into the wall. Jake stood in front of the door, reaching out for a pedestal to one side of the frame, remembering reports from Installation 04 about Forerunner control systems. As his gauntleted hand neared the top of the waist-high pedestal, a bright blue holographic panel flickered into life, symbols rearranging themselves across its surface in a myriad puzzle.

He gingerly pressed the largest glyph on the panel, and the door slid smoothly open in front of him, revealing a long stone corridor. He pointed his weapon down the hallway before nodding at the other Spartans and entering the passageway, closely followed by the three others. He went to activate his night vision filters but realised that somehow the smooth surfaces around them were giving off their own faint light. Perplexed, he led them down the passage and into a network of passageways and smooth ramped staircases, eventually coming out into a large room, with a raised section at its centre. On the raised podium stood three holographic panels.

"Doctor, any help with the translations for these panels?" Asked Jake, walking slowly up to the raised section, stowing his weapon.

"These appear to be control panels for something…" She whispered, her voice taut and excited "One moment, I need to consult my record, I recognise one of the sequences."

Sabina walked up beside him, staring at the middle panel "I recognise that symbol, it was the same for the door opening mechanism, same shape. It must open a door somewhere."

Jake shrugged "Maybe, but I'm not touching anything without the Doc's say so." He rolled his stiff shoulder, glancing around at the tall walls, still emitting an eerie pale light.

**Josef**

_Why are we even here?_ Thought Josef acidly. _We should be up there, killing those hinge-head bastards, not skulking around down here looking through some ancient Alien's closet._ He shouldered his DMR, glancing around at the room. Rachel was stood next to him, fiddling with her BR-55. His ego still stung from the reprimand that CPO Jacob had given him earlier; he'd expected encouragement from the older Spartan when he'd taken down the lone Elite. After all, wasn't that the whole point of this op? To evict the Covenant squatters from the surface?

What was to be of him and Rachel when the Covenant disappeared for good? They'd been trained since they were six years old to kill the alien aggressors, and after the thrashing the aliens had received over Sigmus IV, Josef wasn't sure if they'd be a problem for much longer.

While Jacob and Sabina fawned over the Forerunner glyphs, he turned his attention to door at the other end of the room, identical to the one through which they'd entered. He sauntered over to the pedestal and thumbed the holographic mechanism when it flickered into being. Instead of the door smoothly swinging open as before, the entire control panel turned a bright red and the door remained closed. Evidently this action had not just affected his panel, because in the corner of his eye he saw Jacob and Sabina swing round in his direction.

"Petty Officer, step back." Commanded Sabina. "What did you do?"

He backed away from the door, hands raised in mock surrender "I just pressed the same button that the Chief pressed on the first door's controls"

Before the others could react to this information, however, they all sprang into action, weapons primed as a motion tracker contact appeared on all of their HUDs and rapidly approached their position. They automatically grouped together and Josef raised his rifle to his chest, scanning the room.

"Don't shoot!" Shouted Halsey down the radio, as a small floating orb of metal descended from above. Instantly, all of the Spartans aimed squarely at the object as it approached. It was roughly spherical, with sections cut from its forward face, and bright yellow light emanated from its core, it's metallic surface was alive with shimmering glyphs and patterns in the same yellow light.

As it descended to shoulder height, it swivelled in the air to face them, glowing slightly brighter than before. No one said anything for 10 seconds.

"It's a monitor" Whispered Halsey over TEAMCOM "Artificial Intelligence units designed to act as curators to Forerunner installations, try communicating with it." She sounded breathless, and Josef could imagine her staring open mouthed at their helmet feeds.

"Identify yourself" Stated the CPO, lowering his silenced rifle slightly. Josef was not so keen to lower his weapon, and kept his crosshairs dead in the centre of the Monitor's body.

The floating construct did nothing for a few seconds, and then replied in comprehensive English, with a similar accent to the CPO's. "Greetings, Reclaimers, I am 278 Abhorrent Revelation, monitor of this installation. How may I be of assistance?"

The Spartans exchanged quick glances between each other, before relaxing slightly and collectively lowering their weapons.

"What is the purpose of this installation?" Asked Jake, clearly being fed questions from Halsey.

"Installation Zeta 89 is a forward resupply and repair facility." Replied 278, his aura flickering along with his speech. "During operational use, this facility could resupply the entire High Fleet in less than five cycles. However, since the firing of the Halo Arrays, the entire planet has been in a state of hibernation."

"Resupply? That doesn't make sense, why would the Covenant be looking for a resupply base?" Muttered the CPO "Abhorrent Revelation, what specifically does this facility do? What supplies do you replenish?"

The Monitor paused for a moment before answering "Vessels, Reclaimer. We were able to construct and launch entire fleets during the Great War, and our capabilities have not diminished."

Sabina cleared her throat "Monitor, how many ships could this facility launch in one revolution?"

"One thousand, three hundred and sixty eight." Replied the AI quickly, turning to face her.

Josef felt his blood turn cold. So this was what the Covenant were after, and why they had so willingly sacrificed their ships. They were trying to activate the shipbuilding planet and amass a fleet so massive it could crush Earth in seconds. If Forerunner technology was half as advanced as Josef had read, they were in serious trouble.

"How would one activate the facility?" He asked the orb, gripping his weapon tightly. One way or another, the Covenant weren't getting their hands on their prize.

"I'm afraid I wasn't given that information during my creation, Reclaimers. I am a custodian to this world, not an operator." Droned 278 Abhorrent Revelation.

**Jacob**

"Doctor, you getting all of this?" Jake whispered into his helmet, reeling in the promise of Forerunner Fleets. "How does a planet this small have enough material for whole fleets?"

"I'm recording this all, Jacob. This is amazing, with this facility we could have enough vessels to never need worry about the Covenant again. My guess is a slip-space bubble in the centre of the planet. The Forerunners seem to have a tendency for that."

"How does Admiral Yao want to proceed?" He asked as Revelation answered Josef's question. "Is this simple asset denial still, or asset preservation?"

"Spartan, I want you to find the control centre first, then we can decide further action." Came Yao's voice, startling Jacob slightly. "We need to prevent the Covenant command from accessing the resources here, they could annihilate us all with a tenth of what this place is capable of. And they know it. FLEETCOM reports that another Covenant Fleet is on its way to this system, ETA 18 hours. We need to find the control centre before they do."

As Revelation finished his response to Josef, Jacob smiled as he remembered details about the other Forerunner installations. "Monitor, where is this installation's Cartographer?"

"Here, Reclaimer." He replied

"Of course" said Halsey in his ear "The row of symbols on the middle panel are the same as in John's recordings of Installation 04's Cartographer's control panel. Press this symbol, and the map should activate." She confirmed by highlighting one of the glyphs on his HUD.

He nodded at Sabina, who stepped forward and pressed the symbol. A large three dimensional holographic projection of Sigmus IV appeared above their heads, complete with subterranean Forerunner structures running throughout the entire planet. The entire projection shimmered with silvery light which seemed to have no obvious source. The planet spun around quickly a few times, before slowing to normal rotational speed. A small blue icon appeared at their position, pulsating brightly.

"Doctor, what do I press now?" Jake asked, opening up their private comm link to include the others.

"Analysing… Try the circular glyph on the left most panel." She said, highlighting it on their visors.

Jake stepped forward and activated the Map Room, rapidly calculating what they would need to do if the control centre was on the other side of the planet. As he pressed the hard-light mechanism, a pulse of blue light radiated outwards from their raised floor section along the floor and ceiling, outlining the intricate maze of shapes and lines etched into the stonework. The holographic orb rippled and turned blue, spinning rapidly before coming to a stop with a red icon on the Control Centre. It was blinking less than 5 kilometres from their location… Right underneath the tiny representation of the CCS-Class Battle-Cruiser hunkered down on the surface.

"Excellent news! Now we can journey to the Control Centre and activate this installation! It has been so long." Exclaimed Abhorrent Revelation, performing a celebratory roll in the air.

"Just one second, 278. Admiral, we've located the installation's Control Centre, but from the Cartographer's data, it looks to be directly under the remnants of the Covenant Taskforce on the surface. They may have even accessed the Ruins already, how copy?" reported Jake.

"Received and understood, 209, working on a solution."

"Spartans, Covenant Battle-Net chatter is ablaze, they found the body of an Elite Commander in the base and they've slipped into a whole other dialect in order to display their displeasure. Recommend immediate exfiltration, it won't be long before they put 2 and 2 together and come down there looking for you." Said Halsey, still calm and collected.

Jake groaned internally and took a deep breath. "Understood, ma'am" He turned to his team, cricked his neck and turned off the holographic Cartographer. "Well, at least we know they're coming." He chuckled softly, a rare occurrence. "Revelation, can you meet us in the Control Centre? We might need your help in working the mechanisms" He said, carefully choosing his words.

"Of course, Reclaimer, the service tunnels lead right onto the Control Complex, although regrettably the access tunnels are unpassable." Chimed the Monitor, speeding away towards a small hole in the far wall. "I shall await your arrival there!"

As the yellow light faded away, Jake sighed. "How do we tell him that we're not activating this place? Our primary directive is asset denial, and ONI can learn a hell of a lot more by establishing a research base, much more controlled, rather than having thousands of ships being pumped out of the planet every day."

"Sir, we woke him up from hibernation, surely we can order him back in?" Asked Rachel, shifting her weight from foot to foot.

"Agreed, plus, if he doesn't like the idea, we can always decommission the little light bulb." Josef said, smirking slightly behind the visor.

Sabina shook her head, folding her arms. "I think he'd be a lot more use to the UNSC alive, Petty Officer."

Jake nodded "Plus, you're not exactly the king of good ideas today, are you?" He punched the younger Spartan in the shoulder lightly. A bit of gentle ribbing never failed to boost morale.

Josef snorted, responding only with a shrug and the muttered words "Devil's Advocate"

A sudden shockwave shuddered through the room, followed seconds later by a deafening boom which echoed off of the walls. The Spartans immediately snapped into action, raising weapons and adopting firing stances, all trace of friendly banter gone.

"Well, I guess that's our welcoming party" Muttered Rachel "They must have found our little present. I do hope they liked it."

Jake opened the door and led them back towards the surface, jogging through stone hallways and up staircases until they approached the door into the cave. Jake turned and nodded to the others before slowly reaching up and opening the door. They darted out into the dimly lit tunnel and headed up to the mouth of the cave. The LOTUS mine had done its job.

Body parts and blood were everywhere, radiating outwards from a ragged crater. Judging from the sheer volume of fluorescent blood painted across all surfaces, there had to have been a whole patrol present when the explosive detonated; Rachel almost tripped over the severed arm of a Sanghelli still clutching a plasma rifle in its three-fingered grasp. As they approached the lip of the rock shelf above them, Jake held up a clenched fist and the others halted, crouching down amongst the rubble as he ventured further forward, looking up around the chasm's rim.

Covenant combat troops lined the edge, all of them roaring and growling down at him. He must be only a speck to them, but he could almost feel the combined hatred being directed towards him. The Sanghelli, Unggoy, Kig-Yar and even a few Mgalekgolo were all moving towards the single gravity lift down into the excavation. Even as he watched, a dozen Unggoy descended to the chasm floor and began heading their way.

"Sheisse." Whispered Josef, zooming in with his rifle on the throngs of aliens crowding into the gravity lift.

Jake waved him back into the shadows of the cave, calculating a way to get out of this. He formed a rough plan in his mind, turning to Rachel. "Set up a LOTUS outside the entrance and transfer the detonation code to my suit." She nodded and sprinted back into the cave, clutching a flat mine in her hands.

"Jay, you can't be serious? We can't hold out against a force that size." Sabina said, fiddling with her shotgun nervously.

"We don't have to Sab, just long enough. If we just head into the tunnels now they'll follow us. If we cause a bit of panic up here, thin the ranks a little, then fall back into the ruins, we may be able to find a passage out of here." He replied. The squad of Grunts was now closely followed by a dozen imposing Elite warriors, brandishing Energy Swords and Storm Rifles, growling loudly.

"We don't have much time, set demolition charges around the Lotus, as much C-12 as we have between us, when that mine goes off, the whole cave is coming down, go." He ordered, tossing her his supply of the composite High Explosive. She caught it deftly in one hand and nodded, before retreating away from the entrance. Jake looked at Josef, shouldering his DMR. "You and me, Petty Officer are the frontline. Simply put, we drop as many of them as possible as quickly as possible, understood?"

The young Spartan nodded, sliding back the bolt on his SRS-S5 Sniper Rifle with a metallic clunk. "Sir, it would be my genuine pleasure."

With that, the two positioned themselves behind larger pieces of rubble at the entrance of the cave, levelling their weapons, and unleashed a barrage of pinpoint-accurate fire that brought squealing Grunts and snarling Elites to the ground. Jake squeezed off a full clip into the advancing wall of orange, red and blue coloured armour, causing alien shields to flare and crackle. The high velocity armour piercing rounds from the sniper rifle ripped through unshielded enemies and exhausted Sanghelli energy shields in one shot. But as quickly as they two Spartans could down enemies, more would replace them.

"Josef, pull back, I'll cover you, Rachel and Sabina, take up defensive positions 20 metres inside the cave, move." Jake ordered. He retrieved an M9 Fragmentation Grenade from his belt and pulled the pin. As josef sprinted back from his cover, he tossed the heavy explosive over the younger Spartan's head, and it sailed through the air and landed at the feet of the advancing horde. Jake waited for the dull thump before standing up from behind his cover and firing his weapon into the crowd. Those Covenant left standing were staggering around, dazed by the shock wave; he put them down with calm efficiency, swivelling his torso around as he quickly targeted and eliminated four Elites.

He tossed another grenade over his shoulder as he crouched behind his cover; as the second blast rang out he darted into the cave past the others and slid behind a stalagmite. They all crouched behind rocks, aiming their collective weapons up the sloping cave towards the opening, waiting for the inevitable assault.

A lone Grunt poked his head over a rock by the entrance, squinting into the darkness, a single shot rang out from Josef's rifle, and the Grunt disappeared from sight, minus one head. The panicked screams of his brethren carried down into the depths, and Jake supressed a smile. Nothing moved. Jake could hear the shuffling of alien feet and the barking of the Sanghelli commanders, but nothing ventured into the cave. Jake was suddenly aware of the sound of his own breathing, and the pounding of his heart in his ears.

A loud roaring filled the air, a guttural cry of rage and battle. No, not one roar; twin roars. Jake swore under his breath. "We've got Hunters."

**Hall**

"Hasn't Marden gone a little overboard with the minefield?" Mused the Captain, staring at the web of proximity charges enveloping the planet. "He didn't paint us into a corner, did he?"

"Negative, sir, there are polar gaps in the network." Replied Athena, highlighting the safe areas. "Although Admiral Marden is known to be ostentatious."

Hall grunted "That he is. Right then, what's our status?"

"Engineering has reported that the engines can now give 65% power, and that they can do no more without a serious refit station. Weapons are fully operational and the Fusion reactors are running at full capacity, although the vending machine on deck 24-B seems to have run out of sugar. We're as ready as we can be sir." She said, displaying all the information on the main view-screen.

He nodded curtly "And the Covenant re-enforcements?"

"The _Antoinette_'s sent us a revised estimate of less than an hour, Captain. Apparently they are breaking all the known laws of physics to do it, but that's the Covenant for you, always doing the impossible to ruin our day." Her holographic avatar shrugged and adjusted her toga.

"Alright people, let's get ready, I want to hit them where it hurts before they get a chance to reciprocate" Hall announced, and the bridge crew all nodded in response.

Hall settled down into his chair. "Athena, where has Marden disappeared to? If the Slip-Space estimate keeps shrinking, we're going to need the _Babylon_'s firepower sooner than expected."

"The _Babylon_ and its escort are currently in position in orbit around the second moon. It would appear that we are the bait in this scenario." Athena said coolly, raising one eyebrow.

"Outstanding." Muttered the Captain, shaking his head slowly.

"Captain, the Vice Admiral has updated us on the Forerunner Asset on the planet, for your eyes only sir." Said Lieutenant Mallard, forwarding the message to him. He typed in his security code, and immediately schematics and diagrams, along with a recording of what looked like a floating basketball talking appeared on his screen. He scanned through the message, eyes widening as the enormity of the situation struck home. He deleted the message and its contents and settled down into his chair.

20 minutes passed, and Hall busied himself catching up on FleetCom memos and briefings. He was just reading the announcement of a planned memorial service on Earth when the contact alarm rang through the bridge.

"Sir, small enemy force coming out of slip space approximately two million kilometres off planet, count one cruiser, four destroyers and escort, calculating firing solutions." Harrison said, hands flying across the controls at his station.

"Sir, something's wrong, their shields are still down… And their plasma weapons are dormant, not so much as a flicker of power being fed through the fuel lines" warned the AI, looking puzzled. She brought up the visual of the small fleet on the main viewscreen. Several menacing hulls glinted on-screen, but their formation was nothing like anything Hall had ever seen in battle. There was no tactical placement of the destroyer escort to maximise the available weaponry, no angry red pinpricks of light forming on their lateral lines.

"An open hail sir, from the lead cruiser." Athena said, and the viewscreen was suddenly filled with the head and shoulders of a white-armoured Sanghelli Shipmaster, his split jaw parted as he spoke. Athena quickly activated a translation programme, which overlaid the guttural language with a neutral English translation.

"I am Shipmaster Cro 'Cylenee of the 4th Fleet of Retribution, under the command of Thel 'Vadam of Sanghelios. We mean no harm to Human forces in this system. We come here to root out and punish the war criminal Mal 'Furak."

Hall cleared his throat, unsure how to respond. "Um, Shipmaster, I am Captain Hall of the UNSC _Hydra_. If I'm understanding this correctly, and you are allied with the Arbiter, Thel 'Vadam, then we are both obliged to act in accordance with the Peace Treaty of 2553. We may even be able to assist you in your goals." He swallowed hard. He wasn't a negotiator, but then again, no negotiator in the UNSC had been properly trained for a situation as unique as this.

The beady-eyed alien listened as the Captain's words were translated by a shorter, golden-armoured Elite next to him. He sniffed the air a few times, as if smelling for treachery, before replying. "Very well, Captain, you will give us access to the planet's surface and then we will drive out the cowards and destroy their scourge. There shall be none left to desecrate the stars with their filth."

Hall nodded and terminated the link, before sinking into his chair and wondering just how messy the situation planet-side was about to become.


	9. Chapter 9: Installation

**Rachel**

Rachel threw herself roughly to the ground as the ball of green energy sailed through the air and crashed into her previous cover, throwing rubble everywhere and scorching the area around it. She scrambled into a shallow trench, debris raining down onto her back, deflected by her shields, which slowly recharged.

"Supressing fire!" Ordered Jacob-209 over the COMMS, and she heard the steady rapport of Josef's SRS-S5 rifle as he targeted their adversaries. She checked herself for damage as she lay on her front, relieved to find all limbs still attached. Sabina's MA5D Assault Rifle joined in the attack, spraying the massive armoured beasts with Armour Piercing round, to little effect. The giant Hunter combat troops shrugged off the hail of bullets, crouching behind the monolithic shields on their left arms, grunting. Even at 30 metres distant, they seemed massive in the confined space of the cave.

"Petty Officer, you hit?" Asked the CPO, taking aim with his DMR and squeezing off a few well-placed rounds into the soft unprotected torso poking out from behind the lead Hunter's shield. The creature groaned loudly and shifted its body, its massive energy weapon glowing brightly as it charged, ready for another shot.

"Negative" she reassured, dragging her BR85 Rifle from under her and resting it on the lip of the shallow depression, sighting up on the trailing Hunter. She took careful aim, and fired a three round burst into the alien's midriff, and it issued a similar grunt as it shuffled around to protect itself.

She rolled away out of the ditch just in time, a swathe of green energy bathed the location seconds later, scorching the rock and dirt. She slid behind a rocky formation jutting from the cave wall, poking her head out from cover to analyse the situation. They had been pushed back into the long cave, firing everything they had at the advancing Mgalekgolo pair. The massive forms were not actually one begin, but a colony of small eel-like creatures, who structure themselves in a form that massively increases their manoeuvrability and strength. They fought in pairs, the exact nature of which was still unknown to the UNSC, they only knew that if one Bond-Pair was killed in combat, the other would go berserk, killing anything in its path to avenge its fallen team mate. That's if they had enough firepower to bring the massive combatants down; they were covered in starship-grade composite armour, with only a few chinks available for exploitation, usually in the small of the back or neck.

The lead Hunter shuffled further into the cave, its mate following close behind. They needed to take them out before they were reduced to really close quarters fighting, and Rachel had an idea on how to do it. She had always been the fastest runner in her old Fireteam, leaving most others in the dust when she raced.

"Grenade!" Sabina pulled the pin on a Frag grenade and tossed it towards the Hunters, taking advantage of their momentary steps backwards in the wake of the detonation to pump a few rounds from her own Battle Rifle into the exposed midsection of Hunter number 1. As the others blanketed the Hunters with fire, Rachel dashed out from her cover and ran along the left hand wall of the cave towards the exit, weaving in between rubble. She sprinted up alongside the recoiling aliens and darted towards them, stowing her Battle Rifle and wielding her M7 SMG. She approached the second Mgalekgolo at lightning speed, ducking under its spikes protruding from its back and pressing the muzzle of her M7 into the orange flesh under the armour, pulling the trigger and emptying 60 caseless rounds into the crawling mass of worm-like beings. The Hunter twitched and groaned, slumping over forward onto the ground with a heavy boom; its partner spun around, emitting a low screaming noise, and charged at her.

She dived out of the way of the five-ton alien, but it was quick; as it passed by her, it swung its massive shield, swatting her from the air. Shield warning sounds blared in her ears as she was bodily thrown further into the cave, tumbling down the slope. Oddly enough, she felt no pain, although her flashing biomonitor system warned of cracked ribs and internal haemorrhaging. She stood up, stumbling forwards towards her team. She drew to a halt before Jacob-209, who was saying something over the comms, but she couldn't understand the words. Blackness ate at the periphery of her vision and she slumped to the ground, fighting to stay conscious.

**Sabina**

Sabina had been forced to watch from her defensive position as the small Spartan had made her assault, expertly dispatching the trailing Hunter, and had had to watch on as she was brutally assaulted by the other, all the while taking shots at any exposed flesh she could see. Even as Rachel stumbled towards them, her helmet visor cracked, the remaining Hunter was turning around, charging its heavy weapon.

"Rachel, get behind me" ordered Jacob, but the injured soldier just collapsed slightly next to him, barely staying upright. "Damn it, Josef, get over here and drag her back towards the door."

A green acknowledgment light came on next to Josef's icon on the TEAMCOM display on her HUD, and moments later he appeared next to them, he draped one of Rachel's arms over his shoulder and helped her retreat further into the cave.

"Sab, if you've got any ideas, now's the time." Muttered Jacob, sliding a fresh magazine into his Assault Rifle and ducking behind his cover as a large bright green bolt of energy slammed into the boulder.

She popped up from behind her position and fired her Battle Rifle. Bullets deflected off of the Hunter's armour, and it growled deeply. It moved further into the cave, swinging its 2 ton weapon and demolishing a row of stalactites to make room for its monolithic body. Sabina reloaded her weapon, looking behind her and spotting a purple crate of covenant ordinance. She crawled over to the small box, opening it to find exactly what she had been hoping for; a neat row of three Type-1 Antipersonnel Plasma grenades.

"Got one." She said, priming one of the grenades and throwing it over her cover. The ball began throwing out a ball of plasma gas, glowing bright blue as it arced and struck the Hunter's shield, immediately ionising and adhering to the dark blue metal, glowing brighter. The alien growled loudly, but its yell was quickly overcome by the rising pitch of the plasma grenade's whine as it ate through the metal and detonated, vaporising anything within a 2 metre radius. Once the flash had subsided, half of a Hunter's still wriggling corpse lay on the floor, the large Lekgolo worms writhing on the ground. Jacob poked his head up from cover.

"Good kill, Sab, grab anything else you've got and get ready to move, because this won't be the last of them, not by a long shot." He was referring to the large Covenant force currently forming up outside the mouth of the cave.

"Affirmative." She replied, stashing the other two plasma grenades and reloading her rifle. "Hold the line, I'll be back in one." She moved back towards Josef and Rachel, who were leant up against the cave wall next to the entrance to the Forerunner tunnel system. Josef looked up at her as she rounded the corner, reaching to grab his DMR rifle instinctively.

"At ease, I need your SRS." She said, and they traded weapons and ammunition, he took her Battle rifle and she shouldered the Sniper Rifle. "Be ready to move, both of you, we can't hold the line for much longer." She said, giving Rachel a thumbs up, which she weakly returned.

She darted back to her original position and rested the Sniper, complete with bipod, on her cover, pointing it squarely up the slope towards the cave mouth. She looked through the scope, adjusting for the inclination, and waited for her first target.

Suddenly, the entire cave mouth was filled with targets. Grunts, Elites, Jackals, every rank waving every weapon as they charged into the tunnel. Needle shards rained down, and plasma fire sputtered from the advancing crowd. She calmly began picking her targets, downing Elites and Jackals quickly and efficiently, and she could hear Jake open up with his Rifle, cutting through the Grunt ranks. Frag grenades sailed through the air as Jake and Sabina slowly fell back towards the door, covering each other's withdrawals with sustained fire and grenades. The increasingly accurate plasma fire harried their retreat, scorching the walls and leaving a sharp metallic taste in the air.

"Sabina, pull frags and let's go." Ordered Jake, priming his last grenade and tossing it. She did the same, and before they had even landed the two soldiers were both ducking into the Forerunner corridor, following the two younger Spartans into the tunnel system. As they rounded the corner into the Cartographer room, the C-12 enriched LOTUS mine detonated, creating an immense fireball that instantly barbecued nearby Covenant troops and collapsing the cave on top of the rest. The extended rumbling of the tunnel collapsing echoed through the tunnels. They came to a halt inside the Map room, barely breaking a sweat.

"Well then, that could've gone worse." Mumbled Jacob, depolarising his visor to reveal a grin. The adrenaline was wearing off, and Sabina felt heavy and exhausted, drained. But she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind, and enjoyed the brief moment of relief.

"What now?" She asked.

"We may not be able to get to the Control Centre from here, but we can look for another way out to the surface." Jake replied, activating the Cartographer with a wave of his hand. "Unfortunately, the comms relay will have most likely been destroyed, so there's no way of contacting Command, but we can re-establish contact once we return to the surface."

Josef nodded, "How much trouble do you think we've caused these hinge-heads?" he asked, sounding satisfied.

Jake didn't reply for a minute, staring at the holographic map, calculating a route out of the tunnels. "More than enough, Petty Officer, more than enough."

**Shipmaster Cro 'Cylen, 4****th**** Fleet of Retribution, aboard the cruiser **_**Sanctified Dawn**_

"Shipmaster, the Human fleet has powered down their weapons systems, and the enemy has been located on the surface of Larris." Barked the Sanghelli officer, bowing slightly. Larris was the Sanghelli name for the planet below, which had once had enormous significance in their religion. The San 'Shyuum had ordered a missionary exploration of Larris when they had been in charge of the Covenant, and even established a research facility in orbit, but during one of the many Grunt uprisings the station had been destroyed, and the planet was forgotten upon the discovery of the Halo ring.

'Cylen disliked the Human name for this place, 'Sigmus IV". It was so clinical, so dispassionate, lacking all creativity, like the rest of their weak race. It was so tempting to blast this pitiful human force from orbit, to heat the plasma and evaporate the ugly grey vessels. The Arbiter may be convinced that the two empires could co-exist, but 'Cylen wasn't entirely convinced; for all the talk of humans being weak and cowardly, they were certainly resourceful creatures, and sly as well. Unlike most of his compatriots, he held a certain level of respect for them.

"Show me the coward's hiding place so that I may vanquish him." Growled the Shipmaster, and the purple-tinted projection of the crater in which Mal 'Furak's fleet lay. "How many ships does he have at his command?"

"Preliminary scans show one CCS-Class Battlecruiser, the _Enlightened Prophet_, two CPV-Class Destroyers, three Corvettes, and five SDV-Class Corvettes." Reported another officer on the other end of the bridge.

"The _Enlightened Prophet_?" He mused, clutching the arms of his levitating command chair "I thought she had been destroyed in the Great Schism." This was not good; the _Sanctified Dawn_, the flagship of the 4th Fleet was a CRS-Class cruiser, of much lower tonnage and offensive capability, the information they had paid the Kig Yar for had apparently not been worth the cost, as they had far underestimated the size of the Loyalist fleet. "Very well, it shall be an even fight. What is the status of the Fleet?"

Flashing status lights appeared in the holographic display, and the shipmasters from every ship in the Fleet called in the status of their vessels; no abnormalities so far.

"Shipmaster, the human destroyer has transmitted the co-ordinates of access points through their minefield." Said the first officer.

"Good, descend to the planet's surface and attack the ground forces. We need that Battle-cruiser in repairable condition." He ordered. Ever since the Covenant collapse, the Sanghelli fleet had settled into disrepair, and the number of operable hulls had dwindled. Now the Arbiter needed ships more than ever, to combat a civil war that had erupted on Sanghelios between Thel 'Vadam's forces and a religiously fanatical group called the Servants of Abiding Truth, who thought that 'Vadam's declaration that the Forerunners were not the gods that religion dictated was heresy of the highest order.

He thought a second, then amended his orders. "If the _Enlightened Prophet_ cannot be captured, I would rather see her burn than in the hands of this deserter." His venomous tone was met with growls and roars of approval from both his bridge crew and the collection of shipmasters on the communications network.

"Take us into polar orbit and deploy our ground forces. This is an invasion, be aware of disloyal members of their ranks who may feel compelled to abandon the traitor's ways." He paused, checking that he was broadcasting to the entire fleet "We do this for the good of Sanghelios, and all of our fragmented empire. Do not fail us, and you shall secure our place in the galaxy for the next Age. Act swiftly. Act boldly. Fulfil your duty. Shipmaster Cro 'Cylen out."

**Hall**

"Sir, the Arbiter's Fleet is establishing polar orbit, under the minefield." Athena informed him. Their group was staying in geostationary orbit, looking down upon Sigmus IV. "I do hope they don't glass the planet, there are plans with the CAA for a health spa and beauty centre, and if the surrounding countryside is molten slag, it might detract from the relaxation slightly."

"Unlikely." Said Mallard "Their shipmaster has decreed that the battle-cruiser is to be taken whole. It's quite the speech actually, very heroic."

"How noble." Muttered Hall "Has Admiral Yao re-established contact with her team on the surface?"

Athena stared into the distance for half a second, the orange holographic symbols rolling across her body intensifying in their movements. "No sir, and I think you can call them Spartans, the entire fleet is talking about them. News spreads fast it would seem. I wonder how the 4th Fleet of Retribution would feel about having 'Demons' on their battlefield." She smirked slightly.

"I'm guessing not ecstatic." Hall replied. He flexed his fingers uncomfortably. "I feel so helpless up here. We can't do anything, we just look on from up here. Part of me isn't used to this kind of warfare, sitting and waiting." He shook his head, clearing his thoughts.

"Sir, the enemy fleet is moving." Warned Athena, and red flashing lights appeared on the tactical map "All vessels gaining altitude and charging plasma. They might not have noticed our little…"

As she spoke, a corvette came within the radius of the proximity detonator on a MORAY mine, which blossomed in a brilliant white, silent explosion, engulfing the unshielded ship in a nuclear fireball. The rest of the formation halted and lowered back into the atmosphere, point-defence lasers glowing an angry red.

"… surprise. Well, now they know about the mines." Finished the AI, shrugging. "Judging from their acceleration and new radio chatter, the enemy is preparing to engage the Arbiter's forces, sir. I've done battle prediction calculations, and the 4th fleet has less than a 30% chance of surviving."

Hall paced the bridge, listening to the news. He sighed deeply "Get me Vice Admiral Yao. We might need to help some hinge-heads."

**Jacob**

He was really starting to hate Forerunner tunnels. They had been marching through dimly lit passageways for hours now, swinging their rifles around every corner, hitting collapsed tunnels and solid walls every 20 minutes. Their radios had been full of static since their relay was destroyed, but occasionally garbled UNSC radio chatter would break through the thick isomorphic walls of the ruins, routine messages between ships, the words were unintelligible.

"Sir, where in the back end of hell are we?" Asked Josef, sounding frustrated.

He looked backwards into the visor of his comrade. "If you believe the cartographer, about 200 metres away from an exit to the surface." He turned back towards the front, but as he looked over the passage walls, something caught his eye. "Hold up."

The others took positions around him, pointing their weapons into the darkness on either side of them, and he scrutinised a section of the glyphs that adorned the walls around them. He activated a basic translation programme in his HUD, and highlighted a series of symbols which seemed familiar; the programme scanned the symbols and ran it through the admittedly minimal data that Dr Halsey had been able to provide. After three agonisingly long seconds, the programme chimed and overlaid the English words over the short line of glyphs.

"**Ring-world Installation 03. Primed.**"

He stared at the simple status message, awestruck. He recorded as much of the stone panel as he dared, then straightened up, shaken slightly. "Okay, when we get back to ONI, they are going to have a field day looking through our helmet video feeds. Let's move, the exit is just ahead."

They moved further down the corridor, and Jake's NBC filter system in his helmet told him that there was a higher concentration of organic molecules in the air; they were approaching an exit.

"Got a door." Rachel announced, crouching down next to the frame. Josef stacked up on the other side of the doorframe, and Sabina crouched in front of the doorway, pointing her shotgun towards it. Jake stood in front of the control pedestal and moved his hand over the surface, keying the mechanism. The door swung smoothly open to reveal a rather surprised squadron of Unggoy workers. The trio of Grunts didn't even have time to drop their tools before Sabina fired into them with her M90, spattering her armour with blue blood and killing the unfortunate aliens instantly.

She pumped the action, ejecting a spent cartridge onto the floor, and moved lithely through the doorway. Josef and Sabina peeled away from the walls and followed her through, and Jake took one last look around the stone tunnel before stepping out into the bright early morning sunlight. They had emerged onto a mountainside overlooking the crater, and Jake was momentarily stunned by the spectacle before him.

The entire Covenant taskforce was taking off, the deafening roar of star-ship sized impulse drives turned up to full power maxing out the helmet filters and shaking him to the core. The graceful silhouettes of the formation of Covenant ships slowly rose from the bottom of the crater and soared into the air. His HUD identified the different ships, displaying their tonnage, class and service history next to them on his view. The massive bulk of the CCS-class _Enlightened Prophet_ dominated the area, at almost 1800 metres long, it dwarfed the destroyer and frigate escort which hung around it like a school of pilot fish hangs around a shark. The entire group rose from the ground and accelerated towards them, almost brushing the top of the mountain high above them, shaking the earth beneath with their combined air displacement.

As the fleet thundered overhead, Jake snapped out of his awestruck state and began hailing the _Marie Antoinette_. On his third attempt he initiated handshake protocols and established a secure line.

"Spartan-209 reporting in, repeat Spartan-209 re-establishing contact." Jake said, signalling to his team to take a knee. The radio was filled with static for a few seconds before Dr Halsey's tones cut through.

"Jacob, you're alright. Thank god." She sounded slightly panicked, but she soon adopted her usual calm tone. "While you were inside the structures, the new Covenant fleet jumped in-system, but they're Covenant Separatists under the control of the Arbiter. Shipmaster 'Cylen has been tasked with eliminating a Sanghelli Loyalist, but he brought a knife to a gun fight, sending tactical data now."

"Affirmative, ma'am, we spotted the Loyalist Fleet launching from the surface, heading North at speed." He replied as the transcript of developments scrolled across his screen. "We need to get to the Control Centre, any help?"

"I've had five hours to work, what do you think?" Asked Halsey, and Jake could just imagine her smirk. "I've tapped into the Battle-Net and it was under the _Enlightened Prophet_, underneath a Covenant Firebase. You made quite a mess at the excavation site, the entire Loyalist group is seething. We've also confirmed that the Sanghelli Loyalist that the good Shipmaster is looking for left his flagship with his second in command, who has proceeded to engage the Separatist fleet in polar orbit. Should be a good show."

"Sounds awkward." Sabina commented, looking down into the suddenly empty crater.

"Indeed, the marker on your HUD should lead you to the Control Centre, there are still substantial ground forces in the area, as well as combat air patrols. Good luck Spartans." An orange beacon appeared on their maps, but before they could start to head down the rocky mountain, the sky behind them lit up as a second sun blossomed in the sky.

Jake's radiation detector spiked, and a small shock wave rippled through the air, leading to a muffled booming which echoed around the hills and valleys. Josef's head whipped around, and before he turned his own head, Jake spotted a bright pinpoint reflected in his domed visor, which was realised in the sky to the North, a slowly fading ball of light.

"What was that? Nuke?" Asked Josef

He was answered a second later by a sharp peak in radiation levels detected by all four sets of armour. On the newly updated tactical displays, a covenant corvette winked out of existence from the centre of the fireball.

"Just the calm before the storm, Petty Officer, let's get going." Jake replied, and began the long trek down the mountainside, navigating down rocky cliff faces and sliding down scree-covered slopes. The others followed close behind, and he heard the heavy thuds of either Josef or Rachel stumbling; they weren't as well trained as he and Sabina were for mountainous terrain, he would have to make a note of that for future reference.

They reached the plateau at the foot of the mountain and started on the well-hewn pathway created by Covenant vehicles towards the crater. As they walked, Rachel sidled up to him and matched his pace, tapping her rifle rhythmically, as if nervous of speaking.

"Permission to speak, sir?" She asked, looking dead ahead.

Jake nodded, curious. "Granted, Petty Officer."

"Thank you sir. I had some questions about the Spartan-II project." She sounded wary, cautious of the content of her speech.

He paused, trying to figure out if he was even allowed to talk about the project with a Spartan-III. He supposed that these sorts of situations were the ones that ONI was trying to judge them by. "Okay, I can tell you some things, but don't expect me to know everything, fire away."

She straightened up slightly "Firstly, is it true that a Spartan-II is never classified as KIA?"

He chuckled "That's your first question? It's as good a start as any I suppose, yes, when the programme was made public, it was decided that any and all casualties be reported as Missing in Action, in order to maintain the illusion of invincibility which was keeping up morale." He shrugged "But I can assure you, Petty Officer, that we are by no means invincible."

She said nothing for a few minutes, then voiced another query "What's so special about the Master Chief?"

"Ah, now there's a question. Spartan-117 was always the luckiest of us. Not the strongest, nor the smartest or quickest, but he was a natural-born leader." He coughed "He served in every major battle in the last 30 years in one way or another, and throughout every one he survived. Not all were so fortunate." He lapsed back into silence, wrestling with emotions bubbling to the surface, forcing them down.

"When did you enter the programme?" She asked tentatively.

"2517." He replied quickly

"How many of you were there?"

"33. Including your former commanding officer, Kurt-051."

"And how many are left now?" She asked

He felt a little apprehension sneak into his mind "A handful. Not as many as I'd like."

"Where were you born?"

That struck home. Before his conscription into the programme at age 6, Jake had very few memories of his old life. Flashes of his past would appear sometimes during his downtime, pictures of urban sprawls and snow-covered streets. "Tribute." He replied, neutral in tone.

"Thank you, sir." She said, and fell into silence. Apparently the topic was finished, although he felt raw, exposed. He cleared his mind quickly, as the navigation point on his HUD came within 500 metres of him, changing colour from blue to orange.

"Into cover, column formation, single file." He ordered, and they sidled over from the flattened pathway into the forest on one side, beginning to walk parallel to the clear strip approximately 20 metres into the treeline. The satellite imagery showed a sprawling Covenant complex, at least as long as the now-absent Battlecruiser; the graceful spires of lookout towers and the low curved buildings slowly came into view through the trees, and they halted in the treeline before the customary strip of barren ground between the perimeter wall and the forest. This base was easily twice as large as the Excavation site, and blue vapour spouted from several large chimney-like protrusions from the roofs of some of the grander building.

Jake scanned over the base, and didn't like what he saw; snipers ringed both the defensive walls and the watchtowers, Jackals armed with high-powered Beam Rifle energy weapons, and Plasma Cannon turrets manned by Grunts were strategically place all along the walls so as to give overlapping fields of fire all around the base. Add in the heavy air presence in the area consisting of multiple flights of Banshees and Phantoms, the height of the fortifications and the suspicious silhouettes of Wraith mortar-tanks within the base, and you had one hell of a challenge.

"Tighter than a Firenzian's wallet." Whispered Rachel.

"No way are we getting in there, just look at the defensive forces. This is double any normal base's security." Sabina sounded matter-of-fact "They must be guarding a huge asset."

"That's the idea" Jake confirmed, hailing the _Hydra _on his radio.

"UNSC _Hydra, _this is Sierra-209, do you read?"

"Affirmative Sierra-209, we read you, go for _Hydra_." Came a woman's calm reply.

"Security at Covenant Base Alpha is tougher than anticipated, request support, over."

"Roger that, patching you through to the Captain." The ID on the HUD flickered and was replaced by Captain Hall's information.

"Hall here" He sounded cool and calm, his voice gravelly

"Captain, enemy installation is highly fortified, we could use a little assistance in opening the doors, but the Control Room is directly underneath the base, so MAC rounds are inadvisable."

There was a brief pause, then Hall came back "Well, the 405th are getting restless, I'm sure they'd love to knock on some doors, sit tight. Hall out."

**Hall**

"Sir, Helljumpers are ready to deploy, tubes are warmed." Athena said "They've already performed the pre-mission pseudo-homoerotic rituals, lots of chest bumping and back-slapping." She smiled a tad. "And Major Kovic has taken the liberty of readying all Marine forces for the assault." The list of troops and vehicles being prepared scrolled across the screen, as well as the ships they were to be launched from.

"That should certainly open a few doors." The captain remarked. "Is there any word from the Shipmaster?" They had sent a message 20 minutes prior, offering assistance to the 4th Fleet of Retribution in their conflict with the remaining Loyalist forces, in which the former was significantly out-gunned.

"No sir, but their fleet is taking a beating; at least three of their vessels have been neutralised, and the CRS-class _Sanctified Dawn_ has taken moderate damage, the CCS cruiser is just too big a mouthful for our Separatist friends."

"Keep me posted." He muttered, rubbing his eyes. "Launch the Marines, deactivate the mines in their path, and then get ready to intervene in this brawl down below, with or without the Shipmaster's permission. It won't look good if we just sit by and let them get pummelled into the dirt."

"Aye, sir, ODSTs launching, dropships away."

He watched out of the main view-screen as tiny black specks flew away from the ships in his group toward the planet below, each one a HEV insertion pod, and observed the comparatively bulky forms of Pelicans exiting the various hangars and bays, accelerating quickly away from the taskforce.

"Sir, incoming narrow-band transmission from the _Sanctified Dawn_, allowing us to assist the 4th fleet in any capacity, how nice of them" Athena read, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Admiral Marden's taskforce is engaging in runaway forces on the edge of the system, so it looks like we're the cavalry in this particular charge."

"Good." Hall said, grinning slightly "Athena, identify and highlight hostile and friendly units, prepare all weapons systems and takes us down into the fray." He looked around at his bridge crew "Once more unto the breach, everyone, let's give them hell."


End file.
